Scars
by T.J. Elise
Summary: Darcy has scars. Everyone does. But hers are deeper than many people would dare to imagine. After watching her mother pursue abusive relationship after abusive relationship, she makes herself a promise: she will never be that woman that can't say no. Darcy's story, rated for non-graphic themes including child abuse.
1. Chapter 1

**I curse you, plot bunnies. I curse you.**

**It's not like I don't have a massive story going on right now, that I'm trying to keep up with for my readers' sakes. And no, of course the plot bunnies can't give me an ounce of help with the chapter I'm in the middle of writing.**

**Nah. They've gotta throw a new plot at me that I totally fall in love with, and just HAVE to write. Evil bunnies. **

**This was originally a Clint and Darcy one shot that turned into a Bruce and Darcy multi-chapter saga. I've written the majority of it, so besides rewriting and editing a couple things, all that's left to do is publish it.**

**This is Darcy's story. Rated T for a reason, people. I briefly debated making this M, just because of the mentions of abuse in ****three forms: physical, emotional, and sexual. This deals with child rape, as well as child abuse. It's not the fluff I love writing, even though there are some lighter moments. This was hard stuff to write, so I can safely assume it also qualifies as hard stuff to read. Literally, I pretty much cried as I wrote this, which is enough to make any sane person question WHY I would write this. But this was just one of those ideas that got inside my head and wouldn't go away. Consider yourself warned. I'm not ridiculously graphic about it, because that's not my style, but please, please, PLEASE proceed with caution in this.**

**Oh. One other note. If you are in the situations Darcy finds herself in growing up? Get help. I have watched one of my best friend's deal with her own form of relationship abuse, and guys? No one deserves that. Talk to someone you trust, and get yourself out of any abusive situation before it's too late. It is never your fault, and it is never something that you should feel ashamed of. **

**Anyways. That was your warning. It's rated Teen for themes as well as language, read at your own risk, and so on. **

**Oh. I own nothing. If you sue me, you're going to get a lot of nice dinnerware, and some towels, and an awesome blender, but if you fill out your own wedding registry you can get that stuff anyways.**

Darcy had learned long ago that some kids had families with parents who loved them. She just wasn't one of them.

She could pinpoint the day she realized that her Mom hated her, the way some people hated bullies or broccoli. She was still in the First Grade, and had come home from school one day.

She bounced into the house after walking home from school. She always walked, because Mama was usually too busy to pick her up. Darcy never knew what she was too busy with, but she didn't ask. She liked walking, anyways.

"Mama!" Darcy shrieked, bouncing into the room.

"Shut the fuck up!" yelled Mama. "God damn it, Darcy! I have a headache!"

Darcy shrank back immediately. "Sorry." she whispered.

Mama ignored her and continued to sit, staring at the TV. Her bright red fingernails were clamped around a beer can. Three empty cans sat on the side table next to her, and another two lay on the floor. She lounged back, her tank top baring her midriff.

"Mama?" she asked tentatively. There was no answer.

Darcy was persistent, or at least that's what her teacher said. She didn't really know what it meant, so she'd asked. The teacher had said it meant that she didn't stop trying. So Darcy tried to be persistent.

"Mama?" she said again, a little bit louder this this time. Still no response.

"Mama!" she said, loudly now. She didn't see it coming. Mama's hand, that was. It happened so quickly. One moment Darcy was standing there, trying to get her Mama's attention, and the next she was lying on the floor, feeling pain course through the side of her face. She lay there in shock for a moment, trying to understand what had just happened.

She wondered what she'd done wrong this time.

"I TOLD YOU TO FUCK OFF AND SHUT UP!" her Mom yelled. Darcy's eyes filled with tears as she scrambled away. Out of the living room, and up to her room. She didn't stop running until she was safely in her room with the door closed. She fell onto her beloved pink bed spread, sobbing. In her hand, she clutched the card she'd made for Mother's Day. It was supposed to be special surprise for her Mom.

She was about to throw it in the garbage, but decided to leave it on her desk instead. The words I Love You stood out in silver glitter on the pink paper. She'd spent all morning trying to get the glittery words just right.

She rubbed the side of her face and bit back another sob. It wasn't the first time her Mama had hit her, and it wouldn't be the last. Tomorrow she would say sorry, and she would tell Darcy that she'd been upset, or sad about something, and that she hadn't meant to hit her. Darcy would forgive her, because that's what families did. And she wouldn't tell anyone, because she couldn't get Mama in trouble. If that happened...people would come to take her away. And Darcy didn't want to leave. She loved her Mom too much.

She cuddled up to her pink teddy bear. Mama had bought it for her birthday a couple months ago, and from the first day she'd touched his soft fur, he'd been her favorite. She thought it might be strange, to call the bear a he even though he was pink, but that was okay. He looked like a boy, to Darcy anyways. Mama had remembered her favorite color, too. That had made Darcy happy. Everything in her room was pink, and he matched perfectly. She liked it that way.

She could hear her Mom banging pots in the kitchen. She didn't come to get Darcy, though.

She didn't move off of the pink comforter.

Darcy cried herself to sleep last night, watching the moonlight bounce off of the glitter on her card.

* * *

When Darcy was 10, Justin moved in.

The moment Darcy met Justin, she didn't like him. He was just like her Mom's other boyfriends, except he looked at her differently. She didn't know how to describe it, but she didn't like it. The first time she'd met him, she'd ended up hiding in her room until he left.

But he and her Mom were in love, and when people were in love, they moved in together. At least that was how her Mom explained it to her. So Justin moved in, and Darcy settled for avoiding him as much as she possibly could.

For the first while, her Mom seemed happy. She started making nice dinners, which surprised Darcy. Usually dinner was Darcy making a box of macaroni and cheese, or putting two frozen dinners in the oven. She had been stunned when she walked into the house one day to find a plate of cookies sitting on the table.

"For you and Justin." her Mom had said, smiling at her as she stirred something on the stove. It actually smelled good.

Darcy took two, leaving the rest for Justin. They were a little bit overcooked, but to Darcy, they were the best cookies she'd ever had. Maybe not because of the taste, but because they meant that her Mom had got up and made cookies for her. Okay, cookies for her and for Justin. But that had to count for something, right?

She still didn't like Justin, but if he made her Mom happy, then Darcy could be happy too.

Things seemed perfect for awhile. But despite being so young, Darcy was able to come to a quick conclusion about life in general. Perfect never stuck around for long. It was only a matter of time until things fell apart.

It started to go wrong when she woke up to hear her Mom and Justin arguing. They weren't arguing quietly, either. Darcy sat up and crept over to her door, pressing her ear against the cold wood.

"She's just a little girl!" her Mom was saying, sounding borderline hysterical.

"Think I don't know that?" laughed Justin. Darcy shivered at the tone of his voice. "Look, Angela. Do you want this to work? Because if you do, it's going to happen. You can't expect me to stick around without tapping into that."

"And if she tells someone? Then what?"

"I'll make sure she doesn't."

Darcy crept back over to her bed and threw the comforter over her head. She stayed awake for the rest of the night, her eyes trained on her door. She knew that they were talking about her. She just didn't know what they meant. But it scared her. And Justin scared her.

For the first time in her life, Darcy Lewis was truly, truly afraid.

* * *

It happened on a Thursday night in the middle of October. Darcy had come home from school, being careful to be quiet and not disturb her Mom. Her ribs were still throbbing from the last time she'd been too loud.

Darcy was always too loud, it seemed. Or at least, she always doing something she wasn't supposed to do. She didn't know if her Mom could see how she tried to please her, but she did. She tried to behave and to make things work. Because she wanted this family to work. Even if this family working meant that Justin would stick around for awhile. She wanted her Mom to be happy, and if Justin was the person who did that for her, then Darcy wanted it to work.

She crept up to her room, being careful not to make the stairs creak. She went into her room and closed the door quietly behind her.

She clamped her hands her mouth to muffle her scream. Justin was sitting on her bed. Darcy didn't know why, but she immediately felt sick to her stomach.

"What're you doing here?" she asked.

"My house." he slurred. Darcy wrinkled her nose. Even from across the room, she could tell that he smelled like beer. She hated it when he and her Mom smelled like beer. Bad things always happened to Darcy when they smelled like beer.

"My room." she countered.

She saw this one coming, but she couldn't do anything to stop it. She knew it was coming, but it didn't change how much it hurt. Justin's fist slammed into the side of her head, and Darcy crumbled. For a moment, her vision swam and she thought she was going to pass out. She writhed on the floor, trying to regain control of her senses.

"Don't you dare get snarky with me!" Justin snapped. He grabbed her arm and yanked her up, hauling her over to the bed. He pushed her down onto the pink comforter.

"Hey!" Darcy shrieked.

"Shut up." he snapped. He began to fumble with her favorite pink sweater, the one that she always wore over her purple shirt.

"MOM!" Darcy screamed, trying to roll off the bed and writhing in panic.

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Justin yelled, smacking her across the face again.

Darcy wasn't any stranger to being hit. But Justin rarely hit her, and it shocked her to discover that he hit way harder than her Mom.

"STOP!" Darcy screamed. She braced herself for another slap, but felt Justin continue to touch her instead. She tried to squirm away, but he slapped her again. And again. And again.

Darcy lay still, listening to the sound of her own heavy breathing and trying to ignore the smell of alcohol oozing off of Justin.

"Now fucking well hold still and shut up, or I swear I will give you a reason to cry. And if you tell anyone what happened? I will fucking well murder you. Do you understand me?"

She stayed still for the rest of the night, only crying out when Justin invaded her and she felt the pain rip through her small body.

When Darcy woke up the next morning, Justin was gone. She stood up, groaning at the pain in her gut, and walked over to the mirror hanging on the wall by her dresser. Her face was purple with bruises, and one eye was swollen shut. Her nose had bled a little bit, too. She barely recognized herself.

It was then that she glanced back at her pink comforter, and at Mr. Manly, her pink teddy bear. The comforter was stained with blood, and Mr. Manly suddenly looked out of place in the room.

The pink comforter was thrown in that week's trash. Mr. Manly found a new home in a box under her bed.

Justin broke up with her Mom two weeks later.

Darcy never wore pink again.


	2. Chapter 2

**So I did not expect this to take off quite as quickly, with all the follows and favorites. Because I feel I didn't leave the story in the most awesome place, here's the second chapter. Although thing don't really get any sunnier for Darcy.**

**Reviews are appreciated!**

When Darcy was 13, her mother married Michael.

Michael was different from her other boyfriends. He was rich. He had a nice house, and nice cars, and even a maid to keep the place clean.

Darcy had no idea what he saw in her Mom.

But Darcy wasn't happy when her Mom got married. There were too many memories, too many scars, reminding her of what the men in her life were capable of. Justin hadn't been the last person that her Mom let use her. She didn't trust Michael, and she knew that he didn't like her.

On the wedding day, Darcy hid out in the corner by the bar and tried to sneak shots of tequila. No one noticed her.

Darcy had thought Michael was going to be at least a little bit different. Her hope had been that he'd be too self involved to worry about her.

As usual, she was wrong.

The moment she stepped through the door, it was as if every imperfection was thrust under a magnifying glass for Michael to scrutinize. She immediately hated it.

To Darcy's surprise, somehow her mother and Michael stuck together. Maybe they'd found a common enemy in her. Darcy really wasn't sure.

But Michael hated her. There was no doubt in her mind about that. The only person who hated her more, in Darcy's mind, was her Mom.

She didn't know why. She'd tried so hard to make everything work. She wanted her Mom to be happy, and she wanted to be happy herself. But every time she tried to make things better, it seemed that they just got worse.

Eventually, Darcy got really good at hiding her pain. Hurt and fear was covered up by a snarky wit that would put Tony Stark himself to shame. Bad memories and her own fear of a relationship were masked with an aura of irresponsibility to keep people from wondering what was wrong with her.

She had seen what relationships did to people. And she swore that she would never, ever, ever be the girl who ended up in a bad one, unable to say no.

* * *

When she was 17, Michael announced that they were having guests for supper. The family of one of his clients. Rich people.

Darcy had scowled. She had planned on going out to a party that one of the kids from school was having. There was supposed to be the whole bit, booze, drugs, and sex. Darcy always skipped the sex, but the booze was free and the drugs were cheap. For a couple hours, she could forget.

"I'll see you later." she mumbled, trying to make it to the door.

"And just where do you think you're going, Darcy?" asked Michael, glaring at her over his reading glasses.

She rolled her eyes before turning around. "To the door. Most people use it to go outside."

"Don't you dare get snarky with me, Darcy." said Michael, standing up to face her. "You're not going anywhere."

"Um, yeah. I am."

In the end, she'd been forced to stay. It wasn't like Darcy had expected to win. But she never went down without a fight.

When the family had showed up, she'd been forced to join them around the table in the dining room. She could feel her Mom and Michael glare at her as she slumped down, not bothering to look anyone in the eye.

When she finally did look up, though, she was blown away.

Sitting next to her was the client's son. The first thing that crossed Darcy's mind was "Oh my fucking god."

He was gorgeous. And he was smiling at her.

* * *

His name was Paul. "Paul Junior." he'd said with a wink. His father, Paul Keegan, was Michael's real estate business partner.

Paul had light blonde hair, neatly trimmed, and hazel eyes. He was slim, but in a muscular sort of way. Tall, and had an air about him that immediately let you know you were dealing with someone important.

Immediately he'd taken to Darcy. She wasn't sure why. She had never exactly been one to attract a lot of male attention, and when she did, she usually was able to chase the interested party off within the hour.

When he'd asked her out, Darcy didn't dare to think about it, for fear of her cynical talking her out of her happiness. She'd just said yes.

It had started with a dinner date. Darcy could never get over how incredibly happy Michael had looked when she'd told him exactly where she was going. Instead of being angry, or protesting her going out, he'd just patted her hand and said: "Darcy, that's fantastic!"

It had never occurred to her that dating Paul Junior would mean better business between Michael and Paul Senior. At the time, she doubted she would have even cared.

Dinner dates turned to dancing dates, and bowling dates, and a weekend cruise with his family. Once again, against her better judgement, Darcy allowed herself to have some hope. Even though her senior year of high school was drawing to a close, Darcy couldn't help but hope that they could find a way to make things work.

* * *

"Come to college with me." he'd said.

She stared at him. "What?"

He grinned at her. "Come to college with me, Darcy. I don't want to go without you. Look, we'll get a place, we can take our courses together, and it'll be just like it's always been. You and me, babe."

She didn't argue. He had it planned out, and who was she to argue with a plan that offered her a bit of security?

He'd decided to take his major in business. She opted for political science. He'd laughed at her choice, which had annoyed her.

"Seriously Darcy," he'd said. "What the hell do you expect to do with a degree in political science?"

She'd shrugged. "Save the world?"

It was after they moved in together that Darcy discovered a side to Paul that she hadn't expected. Or maybe that she'd expected, but had hoped to ignore.

It had started when he came home drunk from a party that Darcy had opted out of in order to immerse herself in her analysis. She'd stared at him as he stumbled through the door. "Are you drunk?" she asked.

"Shut up." he mumbled, crashing into the book shelf that sat in what was both their living room and their kitchen.

"Paul!" she yelped.

"I said to fucking well shut up!" he yelled.

Before she'd known what was happening, she was on the floor, with pain blasting the side of her face, and was seeing stars.

The pain of the blow was nothing compared to the pain inside of her, though. It had happened again.

She crawled off the floor and stumbled into the bathroom, ignoring him. She closed the door and the locked it, and stared at herself in the mirror.

It had happened again.

She slept on the bathroom floor that night, keeping one eye on the door and a hand on her bottle of hair spray. Not her weapon of choice, but it would have to do.

Darcy resolved to herself that tomorrow, after she'd left Paul, she would go out and buy herself a taser. She was tired of being the victim.

But the next morning, she woke to Paul banging on the bathroom door, begging and pleading with her to open up. When she finally did, he saw her face and stared at her in shock.

"Darcy, I am so, so sorry. I swear baby. I know I shouldn't have gotten drunk, and it wasn't your fault. God, baby. I am so, so sorry."

He'd looked at her and had apologized so many times, and had promised that it would never happen again. And then he'd held her and let her cry, and had begged her to forgive him.

And God help her for it, but she did.

* * *

It wasn't the last time he hit her.

Suddenly, everything seemed to revolve around pleasing Paul and doing whatever it took to keep him happy. He said he loved her, and that had to be enough.

Didn't it?

He didn't like the way other guys looked at her. So Darcy started to trade in her thrift shop wardrobe for baggier clothes to hide her curves and her chest.

"Don't let them see anything below your neck." he'd said, tracing her collarbone. "That's for me." So she didn't.

Then it was her weight. They had been lying in bed one night, and he was running his hand over the curve of her waist. She hated it when people touched her, but she didn't say no. If she said no, he'd get mad. He'd sighed.

"What?" she'd asked, looking up from her newspaper. She wasn't completely fond of reading the paper, but it kept her up to date on the latest news in politics.

"You could stand to lose a couple pounds, Darce. I mean, seriously." he'd pinched her side, and she'd forced herself to giggle. "That's not attractive."

Hearing him say it had hurt. A lot. But she said nothing, and determined that she'd lose some weight.

So she stopped eating so much. She spent time doing body cleanses and started eating low fat yoghurt, hoping to drop a few pounds. She'd even taken up a yoga class, which she actually enjoyed.

Then it was the sex. This killed Darcy. She'd tried to explain to him why she didn't want it, why she couldn't enjoy it. He didn't understand. He didn't care. If she wanted this to work, she needed to make it worthwhile to him.

It hurt every time, and Darcy always found herself crying after it. Her throat hurt from the lessons he'd give her about "How to use her pretty little mouth for something better than blabbering on about politics". She continued to wear baggy clothes, to hide her bruises as well as her body.

It was when Paul mentioned his plans on marrying Darcy to her Mom and Michael that she realized; she needed to run.


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm really glad that there are people enjoying this! Thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews. **

**On with Chapter 3!**

She'd always enjoyed yoga, but she'd never expected it to find the answer to her problems through it.

Paul had proposed. She'd said yes, only because she knew that the pressure from her Mom and Michael to make the relationship work was intense. She'd cried for two weeks after he'd proposed, because she'd realized that she was just like her mother.

She couldn't say no.

She'd gone to yoga class with a heavy heart and puffy eyes, opting to hide along the back wall of the studio. It wasn't held on college campus, but instead, in a small studio a couple miles away. Darcy had loved it when she'd first walked in, because she'd immediately decided that it "had character". Something about the deep orange walls and the modern art and the polka dots on the front desk drew her in and made her feel safe. So she kept coming back.

She sat at the back of the class, waiting for it to start. No one had come back to join her, which didn't really bother her. For one thing, she was good at being a loner. For another, it gave her time to think about finding a way out of the mess she'd gotten herself into.

About 5 minutes before class began, she was joined by a guy who looked older, but not too old for someone Darcy's age. He plopped his mat down beside her and gave her a lopsided grin. Darcy had to smile back. His moppy salt and pepper hair flopped endearingly over his forehead, and to be honest, he looked just as lost as she felt.

"You done this before?" he asked. He also had a sexy voice. Sexy Moppy.

"Many times." chuckled Darcy. He sighed.

"Same here. Just...different places."

"You're not from here?" she asked. Moppy shook his head.

"Nah. I travel around a lot, so I just find places like this as I go."

_Disappointing._ thought Darcy. She chided herself for the thought.

"Trying to stay fit, hey?" she chuckled. He shrugged.

"More like balanced."

Darcy, as a rule, did not trust men. But Moppy looked so lost, and she felt as if he was just like her. Haunted and never quite fitting in.

She stuck out her hand. "Darcy."

He shook it gently. "Bruce."

They kept to their little back wall through the rest of the class. Bruce, it turned out, had a wickedly dry sense of humor. Darcy found herself nearly suffocating from trying to hold in her giggles. They'd bantered back and forth, and he was one of the few people she'd ever met who could match her wit.

When the class ended, Darcy leaned back with a sigh. Time to go home. Back to Paul. Back to hell.

She stood up to say good-bye to Bruce, who surprised her by asking:

"You got time for a cup of coffee, or tea, or whatever it is you drink? I saw a café down the street..."

She'd studied him carefully. She was good at detecting ulterior motive, and she saw absolutely none in this guy. Which was a change from her regular life.

That was how she found herself sitting in a café, drinking a caramel macchiato, and swapping abbreviated life stories with the cute moppy haired guy from her yoga class.

"So...engaged?" Bruce pointed to the diamond ring sparkling on her left hand. Darcy sighed.

"Yeah. A couple weeks ago."

He studied her carefully, calculatingly, and maybe even warmly. "You don't seem as happy as someone who just got engaged should be. You having second thoughts maybe?"

Darcy shrugged. "I guess. I mean, he's a good guy..."

"Does he treat you right?"

How the hell was she supposed to answer that one?

She realized that she was taking too long to answer, and that he was staring at her in concern. "Yeah. He's good."

Bruce's expression didn't change. "Darcy, I don't know you, and I'm not exactly the best person in the world to be giving relationship advice..."

"Never had one?" she guessed.

"Screwed up the only one worth having." he answered. "But if he doesn't treat you right, he's not worth your time."

How was she supposed to explain her relationship with Paul to a total stranger when it didn't even make sense to her? Darcy opted for a different path.

"Eh, my parents like him, so who am I to argue?"

This seemed to bother Bruce. His eyes crinkled together at the corners, which was actually pretty adorable. Not that Darcy would ever admit it.

"I guess, as long as they have your best interests in mind. If they don't, then their opinions are worth nothing."

"Speaking from experience, Moppy?"

He chuckled. "More than you know, kid."

She sighed. "Have you ever felt like you wanted to just escape the life you're in now, and go somewhere, and just start all over?"

Bruce laughed. "You have no idea."

She realized then that she'd found a kindred spirit, someone who was just as haunted as she was. It was oddly comforting, to know that she wasn't the only one with a pack of demons chasing her.

"Have you ever done it?" she asked.

He grinned. "I'm sort of in the middle of doing it right now. I'm flying back to Calcutta in a couple of days. It's...been my fresh start, if you will."

She leaned forward. "Lucky."

He snorted. "Uh-huh." Then he looked thoughtful. "Why? You looking for a fresh start in case lover boy doesn't cut it?" he nodded to her ring again.

Darcy had to laugh. "Honestly Bruce, he's already done more than enough shit to not make the cut. If I could find my fresh start, I think I'd take it and get out of here without looking back."

"You're in college, right?" She nodded. "What's your major?"

She sighed. "You're going to laugh."

"Try me."

"Political science."

To Bruce's credit, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, but he did not laugh. "Get an internship."

"Huh?"

He leaned forward. "Colleges get requests for them all the time. If you check with a student advisor, they can probably give you a list of people looking for interns. You'll get some credits for it, too."

The wheels in her head immediately started spinning. "And what's to say that anyone I try to get one with won't just laugh at my major and show me the door?"

Bruce chuckled. "Just go to through the list and find the oldest standing offer you can. Odds are, they never got anyone interested enough to come and join them. I can almost guarantee you'll find somewhere to go." he shrugged. "Just a thought, anyways."

Darcy nodded thoughtfully, when her phone started buzzing. She picked it up and checked her messages with a sigh. Paul.

**Where the hell are you?** he'd messaged.

"And back to reality." she muttered. She pulled out her wallet to pay for her coffee, but Bruce waved her off.

"It's on me, kid."

She had to grin. Chivalrous Moppy. "Thanks Bruce. It was really nice to meet you...and good luck in Calcutta."

He smiled back. "It was great to meet you, Darcy. Good luck with..." he nodded to her ring again.

* * *

Paul had been furious when she'd come home from class an hour later than she usually did. It turned out that he kept pretty good track of her schedule. Darcy wasn't about to explain that she had an after class coffee with some moppy haired guy named Bruce, so she'd pretty much just ignored his questions. The fresh bruises on her chest and the general soreness of her lower body were testament to how well that response had gone over.

That morning, she decided that looking for a way out couldn't hurt. So she went to the SA's office and asked about internships that were available. The SA had seemed genuinely excited about Darcy's interest, and had given her a big list of companies, scientists, and operations that were looking for interns.

Darcy took Bruce's advice and combed through the list, finding the oldest available internship that she could. "Foster." she murmured. Jane Foster. She was a physicist, and had a partner, Dr. Selvig. They were doing some sort of research down in New Mexico.

That was definitely a change from where she was now. And Darcy was pretty sure that while Paul would try to track her down, New Mexico was one of the last places he'd ever think to look for her. He'd look in the big cities first. California, New York, Florida, Chicago, all those places she dreamed of going.

New Mexico wasn't very high on the list of places she wanted to go, but it wasn't here. And at this point, away from here was all she was looking for.

So she called Jane Foster, even though she wasn't quite sure about what kind of a reaction to expect from the woman. Darcy definitely hadn't expected for her to shriek in excitement when she explained that she was looking for an internship in order to gain some extra credits.

"Seriously?" she'd said. "Oh my gosh, you are my hero! Are you serious?"

Apparently she hadn't ever expected to get an intern. She didn't even seem to care about Darcy's major. Jane had been pretty clear that they didn't have much to offer her other than a pullout bed, guaranteed meals, and a relatively well running computer, but that she and Erik would do everything they could to make her feel welcome. What sounded like so little to Jane sounded like heaven to Darcy.

The morning she left, she made sure that she woke up well before Paul did. She'd booked her plane ticket the night before. She left the baggy clothes behind, because she'd never liked them anyways. She packed one suitcase, and filled it with the essentials of her life. Then she packed up a couple boxes with her comic book collection, some trinkets she loved, and a vase she made in a pottery class that she took a year ago. Mr. Manly may have been slipped between the piles of comic books, but Darcy would never admit to that. She marked the New Mexico address Jane had given her onto them and then mailed them off.

She went into the drawer where she knew Paul kept an envelope of cash and took it. She left her cell phone and all but one of her credit cards, the one that Paul didn't know she had. She took her I.D., and left her engagement ring lying on the counter.

She softly closed the door behind her and ran down the stairs, climbing into the cab she'd called for. She kept expecting Paul to jump out from somewhere and start demanding to know what she was doing. She held her breath all the way to the airport, and then realized that she still had 4 hours before they'd even begin processing people through security.

Those four hours were painful for Darcy. She sat in a little café anxiously watching every face, waiting for Paul to come and get her, and to drag her back to their apartement. She ate two cinnamon buns with way too much frosting as vengeance for the weight that she hadn't really needed to lose. She even bought a couple chocolate bars to stash in her pocket for the plane ride.

It wasn't until the plane took off that Darcy finally felt relief. As she felt the aircraft lift into the sky, and soon found herself rising above the clouds, she realized it.

She was finally free.


	4. Chapter 4

Jane Foster was the one who began to put the pieces of Darcy back together.

As soon as she stepped off the plane in New Mexico, Darcy was approached by a gorgeous brunette woman with a soft smile. "Darcy Lewis?"

"That's me ma'am!" said Darcy, sticking out her hand. She immediately found herself wrapped in a hug.

"Jane Foster. But just call me Jane, honey."

Darcy liked the woman immediately.

She'd been ready to get to work as soon as she had arrived at what was the shambles of a laboratory, but Jane wouldn't hear of it. "Absolutely not. We're going out for burgers, and you're getting some sleep. Worry about it tomorrow."

Darcy would soon learn that Jane could work like a mad-woman when she wanted to, but that when her focus turned to mothering someone, nothing else got in the way.

She'd been nervous around Erik at first. Her "don't trust men" instincts immediately tried to kick in, and Darcy was forced to restrain them when Erik had introduced himself. The restraint didn't last long, though. She soon discovered that Erik was interested in politics. Not a day went by where they didn't debate some form of a topic, be it national or world. Erik was a smart guy, but he never treated Darcy like she didn't know what she was talking about. Instead he challenged her with new ideas, and even let her challenge his own convictions. She like that.

She transitioned into wearing t-shirts again. Ones that showed off her figure, too. She began eating semi-normally, depending on whether or not Jane remembered to feed herself. She filed files, and entered in computer data. She made coffee and kept Jane up to date on what was happening in the real world.

She bought herself a taser, too. Because she never wanted to go back to being the victim.

* * *

Darcy still remembers the first time she'd used that taser.

She was surprised that she'd had the presence of mind to use it. But when she'd seen Thor, bumbling around the desert, acting like he'd spent a little too much time with the rum, she'd panicked. The memories had come back, and Darcy couldn't help but remember the fear that attacked her every time she saw someone intoxicated.

She also couldn't help but remember the shock on Jane's face when she realized that Darcy had tasered him. Darcy had offered the only answer that she had in the moment, which also happened to be the truth. The guy had freaked her out.

Erik had said nothing until he'd loaded the big guy into the vehicle, only asking her that the next time she decided to taser someone, could she please make sure they were already in the van?

She hadn't been sure what to think of Thor, either. When she first met him, her men alarm went off. But it had gone off with Erik, too, and she was learning that Erik was one of those people she could probably trust with her life. So she'd put the taser away, and gained a new friend in Thor. It became clear pretty quickly that the guy was like an oversized puppy, with big sad eyes and the way he followed Jane around.

All that time, she never once thought about her Mom and Michael, or Paul. And for the first time in her life, she felt happiness that seemed to be permanent.

* * *

After the Chitauri attacks, Jane had begged Darcy to come to live in New York City.

"Darcy, you've got to come. I need my lab whisperer, and I promise you that there will be some actual pay involved."

With the six credits she'd earned from working as an intern in New Mexico, Darcy had been able to graduate. She happily went with Jane to New York, where Jane had been offered a position working in the labs at STARK Tower. And a room with Thor. Apparently the big guy was moving in there, too.

She'd always wanted to see New York, and figured that after spending a year without contact with Paul, the chances of him finding her anywhere were ridiculously slim. And even if he did find her, she wasn't alone anymore. She had Jane, Erik, and Thor. None of them were people that you wanted to mess with.

Sometimes Darcy still had nightmares. About Justin, or about Paul. She occasionally woke up on the floor, crying out as invisible hands touched her in places they never should have been. But she wasn't living a nightmare anymore. And that was enough for her.

Then she'd met Tony Stark. Tony Stark had surprised her by not setting off her man alarm. If anyone in the world should have, it would have been him. But when he walked into the lab, glanced at her, and said: "You the chick with the great rack who makes killer coffee and can file like hell?" she'd immediately liked him. Then he'd offered her a job with a ridiculous paycheck, which she'd been tentative to accept.

"Look at it this way." said Tony. "You stay here, keep everyone under control, and keep the mad scientists happy. Make coffee, go out to pick up the odd pizza, and actually get paid to do it."

That was how Darcy Lewis found herself as an official employee of STARK Industries.

* * *

Soon after she'd met Tony, he'd introduced her to Captain America.

"Just Steve, ma'am." he'd said.

Tall, blonde, and built like Adonis, age definitely hadn't taken it's toll on him. Darcy forced herself not to stare at his abs. Or his biceps. Or his ass.

Not staring at Captain American was like not drinking in the bar. It was down right painful.

Soon, though, once she'd worked past the super hot super soldier from World War II thing, she found another kindred spirit. Steve had been asleep in the ice for years, and had next to no understanding of today's politics. But he was interested in them, and they would sit for hours at a time with Darcy providing analysis, and Steve asking questions. He'd cook her pancakes, and she and Thor would have competitions for who could put the most syrup on them without sending the sweet stickiness over the sides of their plates.

It was during one of their competitions that she'd met Clint and Natasha.

"Lady Darcy, you cannot defeat me in this battle of sweetness." Thor squeezed his bottle as hard as he could, and Darcy snorted.

"Please, big guy. You've been eating pancakes for, what, two years tops? I've been doing this since I was a kid." She made a heart in on the top of her pancake as she surrounded the edge of it with syrup.

"You dare to challenge the god of lightning?" teased Thor.

She snorted. "I happen to still have the weapon that knocked the god of lightning on his ass, so yeah. I'll challenge ya."

"You've knocked Thor on his ass?" came a new voice.

She turned around to see a hunk of man flesh leaning on the table behind her. Great arms, gorgeous eyes, and one hell of a smirk.

He definitely made a good first impression.

"Yup."

Thor smiled. "Darcy is a formidable opponent for any man, it seems."

Darcy chuckled. He had no idea.

"How?" asked biceps, nodding to Darcy.

"Taser." she shrugged.

He grinned. "Nice." He stuck out his hand. "Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye, the world's greatest marksman." He winked.

She stuck hers into it. "Darcy Lewis, alias Sparky, the world's greatest taser wielding snarker."

"No kidding." he chuckled. "Did he scream?" He nodded towards Thor.

"Nah." said Darcy. "It was more of a manly moan."

"Figures."

Darcy was just starting to build up her confidence with the guy when she walked into the room. Darcy didn't know who_ she_ was, but _she_ looked like 37 kinds of hot in a black cat suit that Darcy wouldn't be caught dead in. _She_ had perfect hair. _She _looked like she knew 10 ways to kill you with her pinky finger.

There were few times in her life where Darcy had felt completely intimidated. This was one of them.

"My partner, Natasha Romanoff." said Clint, glancing at the redhead with admiration.

Ah. They were one of those couples.

"Not like that." he added. She glanced at him. Mind reader?

"Not quite." he smirked. "Just really used to introducing her to people. She's my partner in crime. We work for SHIELD."

Ah...one of _those _partnerships.

Natasha had initially terrified her, but when she offered her hand to Darcy, it struck her.

She knew. Somehow, without saying a word, Natasha knew exactly who she was and who she was hiding from.

But instead of judgement in her gaze, Darcy caught...sympathy?

It wasn't until later that night that she caught up to Darcy, who quickly came to the realization that she'd found another ally.

"If you ever want a lesson on how to kick some ass, I'm free on Wednesday nights."

She took Natasha up on that offer.

**So things are settling down for Darcy a little bit. She's got a steady job, and she's getting lessons from Natasha! (Who wouldn't love lessons from Natasha?)**

**Next chapter everyone's favorite fluffy scientist comes back into the picture! Reviews are awesome, as well!**


	5. Chapter 5

**New chapter's up! Thank you for all the reviews, favorites, and follows! This is exploding far past anything I expected for it...**

Life fell into a routine for Darcy. Normally, she hated routines. Routines were for normal people, with normal lives that weren't completely messed up.

But falling into a routine with other people that were just as messed up with you were seemed like some sort of twisted up normal. What was normal for Darcy was weird for a lot of people, but that was okay.

For example, normal was spending a Saturday morning making waffles with Captain America.

Darcy was pouring batter into a waffle iron, watching the creamy colored liquid ooze into a square, overfill, and then ooze into another.

"So I just hold it down until I smell them burning?" Darcy half joked.

Steve shook his head. "I'll tell you when they're done."

"I cannot believe Captain America is letting me be in charge of the waffle iron."

Steve laughed. "I'm still not convinced you're qualified.

"Hey!" protested Darcy. "I was a waffle pro in college. Sort of. If toaster waffles count."

Steve looked at her curiously. "What was college like for you?"

Darcy's internal alarm started shrieking at her to change the subject, but she knew that it wasn't a good way to let everyone keep thing that she was their dose of normal, that she wasn't just as messed up as they were. Because with Natasha being the exception, Darcy was pretty sure that everyone thought she was just a normal girl who had a mouth that matched Tony's.

And for some reason, she wanted to keep things that way.

"It was...college?" she said lamely. "The days of undercooked packaged noodles, and sharing a bathroom?"

"You had a dorm room?" asked Steve.

"Not quite." said Darcy. "I lived just off campus, with a room mate."

A bastard of a room mate, but a room mate all the same.

"What was she like?" asked Steve.

Darcy's mind was scrambling for a way to answer that question while she picked up a glass measuring cup to start a fresh batch of waffles. She wasn't paying attention, and shrieked when the measuring cup full of waffle batter fell to the floor and shattered at her feet.

_"Oops." she muttered to herself, staring at the water glass lying in broken shards at her feet._

_"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" yelled Paul, jumping up from the couch. "You little twit!"_

_"It was an accident!" she said, trying not to make him angry._

_"Damn it, Darcy! Those are expensive!"_

_"I'm sorry." she said._

_"DAMN IT, why can't you be more careful!"_

_"I said I was sorry!" she yelled back. She tried to duck as he swung his fist at her head, and embedded a piece of glass in her foot in the process._

_"Not yet." he hissed. "But you will be."_

_He hauled her off the floor and dragged her into their bedroom._

"Shit." she swore. "Oh shit, oh shit. I am so, so sorry. Damn, I am such an idiot."

"Darcy-" said Steve.

"Damn it." she muttered to herself. "Damn it, I am so stupid."

"Darcy?" Steve said again.

"What the hell were you doing?" she asked herself leaning down and trying to pick up the glass. She sliced her finger open in the process, but didn't pay any attention to it. "You are so stupid, Lewis. Why the hell weren't you paying more attention? Stupi-"

"Darcy." Steve said, firmly, like he was commanding her or something. She glanced up at him in alarm. He smiled gently, his blue eyes filled with concern.

"It's not a big deal. Stark probably has a billion of the things, and if he doesn't, he could buy them."

"I know, but-"

"No buts." Steve said firmly. "It's fine. Stuff breaks, okay?"

She was starting to understand why he was so good in the army. "I should've been more careful."

"Why?"

The question startled her. "Because...breaking things sucks?"

Steve rolled his eyes. "It's not the end of the world, Darcy." He helped her off the floor and brushed a couple small shards of glass from her jeans, and then glanced at her hand in concern. "JARVIS, where's the first aid kit at?"

"There is one in the bathroom at the end of the hall, sir."

Steve placed a hand on her elbow. "Let's get you cleaned up."

Darcy nodded to the glassy, battery mess on the kitchen floor. "What about that?"

"I'll worry about it later."

He led her to the bathroom and pulled out a first aid kid from underneath the sink. The germs never had a chance, in Darcy's mind, after watching how thoroughly he cleaned it.

"They teach you that in the army?" she asked.

"I was the pride of the infirmary." he chuckled.

He wrapped a small bandage around it and gave a nod of satisfaction.

"So am I going to live?" she asked.

"I'd say the prognosis is good." Steve chuckled. He helped her off the counter like the gentleman he was. "Darcy?"

"Yeah?"

He looked at her carefully. "You know it wasn't a big deal about you breaking the measuring cup, right?"

She nodded. "I know."

He looked like there was something else he wanted to say, but at that moment, a particularly pungent odor filled the air. Steve looked over his shoulder into the kitchen.

"Oh shit."

Turns out that Steve was also pretty good at extinguishing waffle flambé. It was nice to know that even Captain American swore when the waffles burned.

* * *

Steve couldn't get the look on her face out of his mind.

It was late, and he was pretty sure that everyone else had gone to bed, but he couldn't sleep. He found himself in the gym, beating his fists into a punching bag and trying to get the expression on Darcy's face to go away. He sighed as the bag fell off the hook.

She'd looked like...she thought he was going to try and hit her or something. He couldn't figure out why.

"Trouble sleeping?"

Steve looked over his shoulder and saw Natasha leaning against a wooden beam. "Yep. You?"

She shrugged. "My sleep schedule's strange. Some nights I sleep, some nights I don't. Tonight, I don't. Plus, there's a certain fat-ass in my bed who won't stop kicking."

He tried not to smile at the idea of Clint taking up a bed, and Natasha not fighting back. He understood her insomnia, though. The woman clearly had more demons than it was fair for a human to have. He wasn't going to pry, but then a thought crossed his mind.

Did Darcy have demons?

He'd never thought of her as having them. She was young, spunky, and smart mouthed, but he'd never thought of her as anything but normal.

"Everything okay?" Natasha asked.

Steve knew that she wasn't always the one to initiate conversation, so he opted to take advantage of it.

"I'm worried about Darcy."

He saw a brief flicker of concern cross Natasha's face. It was there and gone so quickly, that Steve nearly doubted it's existence. But he knew that the assassin was fond of the spunky brunette, and that she'd be concerned about her too.

"Why?"

He rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh. "I-I don't know. It's just...we were making waffles today, and she broke a measuring cup. It really wasn't a big deal. But she looked like...she thought I was going to hit her or something."

Natasha thought about it for a moment. "Did she say why she was upset?"

"No."

She looked at him and smiled gently. "Steve, call it women's intuition, but I happen to know that there is more to Darcy than her little care free act. I don't know what's happened to her, and I'm not going to push her for it, but...Some days I think she's just as haunted as the rest of us, except she's really good at hiding it."

Steve processed that thought. Natasha patted him on the shoulder. "It's something to think about, anyways." She turned to leave.

"You going to bed?" Steve asked.

"Yep." said Natasha. "And if Clint knows what's good for him, he'll get his butt on his side of it before I'm up there."

* * *

"Coffee, anyone?" asked Darcy. She'd quickly fallen into a routine at the lab, as well. This routine involved making sure the two geniuses in her care were properly caffeinated at all times. Apparently a third scientist was joining Frank and Stein, as Darcy affectionately called Jane and Tony. If his care was the same as Jane and Tony's, Darcy would just have to make sure she kept a third coffee cup full, and ordered extra portions off the take out menu.

"Yes." said Tony, not looking up from his computer. She carried the coffee over to him, and then picked up a pencil on the ground.

"Thanks." he muttered, still not looking at her. She wrapped his fingers around the cup and let him continue working.

"Darce?" asked Jane.

"Yeah?" she answered.

"Can you file this?" She shoved a mess of papers across the desk.

"Aye-aye, boss lady!" she chirped, beginning to sort through the disaster that was apparently Jane's important science papers.

"Hey...Tony, is this-" a new voice joined their normal banter.

Darcy spun around, and couldn't believe who she saw.

"Moppy!" she squealed. Bless his heart, he turned bright pink immediately. But then he grinned.

"Darcy?"

Tony glanced up. "You two know each other?" He paused and stared at Bruce. "Moppy?"

Darcy ignored him. "What're you doing here? I thought you were in Calcutta!"

Bruce shrugged. "I came back to the States." He glanced at her left hand and grinned when he realized the ring was gone. "I take it everything went well?"

She nodded, understanding the double meaning behind his words. "I took your advice. I got an internship with Jane here, and finished my degree in political science. Now I'm a full time lab whisperer."

He applauded. "Well done!"

They grinned at each other for a moment, and Darcy resisted the urge to tough his hair.

"Um...awkward? How the hell do you two know each other?" said Tony. "And...Moppy?"

Even Jane was looking up from her calculations. Darcy didn't like the look in her eyes and she watched her boss size her and Bruce up. She knew where her mind was going, and, well...

That wasn't something Darcy was ready for yet. Even if Bruce was one of the official nicest guys she'd ever known for a short period of time.

"Yoga class." Bruce said simply, still ignoring the 'Moppy' comments. "I met you in where...DC?"

"Yup." said Darcy. "And we swapped life stories over coffee."

The answer seemed to satisfy both Jane and Tony, since they both dropped the subject. Or at least Jane did. Darcy watched as her boss poked Tony Stark with a freshly sharpened pencil until he stopped asking about why exactly Darcy had called Bruce "Moppy".

Bruce didn't ask about his new nickname. And he didn't mention Paul, which amazed her. She had never wanted anyone to know about what had gone on before she joined Jane as an intern, and he seemed okay with keeping things that way.

* * *

They didn't discuss Paul until he caught up to her one day, while she was running around photocopying files for Tony and filing peanut butter and Poptart covered calculations for Jane. Apparently, she had taken her work back to her apartment with her and made the mistake of showing it to Thor. Hence the food covered math.

"Hey, Darce." said Bruce, grabbing her by the arm. "Got time for a coffee?" He looked so hopeful, and Darcy didn't even hesitate with her answer,

"Absolutely." she said, dumping the papers on a table. "Know where a gal can get a good latte?"

That was how she found herself in a tiny little coffee shop in New York, sitting across from Dr. Bruce Banner, explaining how she'd run away from Paul and her parents without telling them where she was going. Bruce blew out a long whistle when she'd finished her story. "So you think they're still looking for you?"

She shrugged. "I don't know if my parents will. They might just be happy to wash their hands of me. But Paul...? I don't know if I can ever count on him to stop looking. He's...like that."

Bruce's face grew dark. "Please tell me you're not afraid of him."

She glanced up. "You don't know him. Or what he's capable of." _Or what he did to me, _Darcy mused.

He snorted. "You live in STARK Towers and rub shoulders with Pepper Potts. Tony Stark trusts you enough to make his coffee, and even compliments you for it. You play video games with the god of lightning, and explain politics to Captain America. You take assassin lessons from the Black Widow, and are Hawkeye's prank buddy. And you've got me..." his voice trailed off. "Has Tony told you my dirty little secret?"

She giggled. "You have a dirty little secret Dr. Banner?"

He sighed. "More a big green one." He stared at her, as if she was going to run away any second and leave him sitting alone.

She thought for a moment. Jane had mentioned that he was an Avenger...She'd met Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and the Black Widow. Which left...

"Oh. OHHHH..."

He chuckled. "You can change your mind about meeting me for coffee if you want. I don't mind. I'm not going to blow up any second, but you're allowed to be scared of me."

He said it lightly, but his eyes held a loneliness that Darcy found herself identifying with.

"No, I mean...I don't mind. The green thing. I can deal with that."

He raised his eyebrows. "You don't mind?" She was pretty sure he thought she was losing her mind, which made her even more convinced that she was not going to walk away.

"Nah!" she shook her head. "I mean, what better ex-defence is there than a Hulk?"

Bruce laughed. He actually laughed, and his eyes laughed with the rest of him.

"I guess you're right."


	6. Chapter 6

It had surprised Darcy, the way it seemed to come out of nowhere.

She'd become skilled at repressing her feelings, and at keeping everything under control. She rarely lost that control.

But one day the fear had hit her. The fear that Paul and her parents might come back, and that she would go back to being the way she was.

The memories had taunted her as she had tried to get ready for the day. She'd crawled out of the shower, gasping and trembling as she tried to convince herself that the hands touching her weren't real, that they were just memories. She tried to tell herself that she was safe, that they could never find her.

But what if they did?

Darcy had asked Jarvis to inform the mad scientists that she was taking a sick day, and that no, she didn't need a doctor. She just needed some rest. She hoped that they wouldn't question it.

Then she pulled the covers over her head and tried to make the memories go away. She trembled beneath the blankets, and tried to force the leering eyes from her mind.

She'd startled when someone had knocked on her door, and tried to breath deeply in order to calm her racing heart.

"Yeah?" she said, trying to sound as normal as possible.

The door opened, and the last person Darcy had expected to see stood in the doorway. Natasha smiled at her gently, or at least Darcy was guessing it was supposed to be gently. Any emotion on Natasha's face tended to be a bit freaky.

"I was sent by Jane to check on you...are you alright?"

Darcy nodded. "Yep. Just taking a sick day. No biggie."

Darcy could feel Natasha evaluating her carefully, and tried to still her trembling body. The assassin shook her head.

"Memories?"

Darcy sighed. Of course, of all the people Jane could have sent, she opted to send the ninja. "How much do you know?"

Natasha walked over and sat on the end of her bed. "About you? Not as much as I'd like to. But I know the warning signs."

Darcy raised her eyebrows in disbelief, and Natasha simply sighed.

"When did it start?"

"When did what start?" Darcy said without thinking.

"Are we really going to do this?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Darcy said firmly, trying to escape the panic oozing through the corners of her mind. Telling Natasha would mean that she would be accepting that she wasn't normal. She'd come to value her sense of normalcy, and could imagine the pity in the eyes of the Avengers if they ever knew who she truly was.

"Darcy." said Natasha.

Darcy shook her head. "I can't tell you."

Natasha's gaze softened. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to have to run away again."

"Then don't." Natasha said. "Don't run, Darcy. Not from your friends, and not from your past."

"I'm not running from my past, Natasha." said Darcy, glaring at the assassin. "I just don't want to deal with it, okay? You've gotta put your past behind ya, hakuna matata and all that shit."

"I was raped." said Natasha, after a moment's silence. Darcy stared at her.

"In the Red Room." she continued. "I was raped. They called it training, because they were in a position to make up excuses like that for themselves."

Darcy continued to stare at her, unsure of what she was supposed to say. She opted for honesty.

"Does it ever stop? I mean, do you ever forget?"

"No." said Natasha. "I didn't. I remember every single one of them. The one guy was married and had two little girls, and there he was using a girl his daughter's age. You don't forget. But you do stop being afraid of it."

"How?"

"Time." said Natasha, smiling sadly. "Time and figuring out who you are outside of being a victim. But you're doing that already."

"I am?" Darcy wanted to smack herself for asking question after question, but she couldn't help herself.

"You are." said Natasha, smiling for real this time. It was always a little bit scary to see the Black Widow give a genuine expression, but Darcy was getting used to it. "You have coffee with Bruce. You pull pranks with Clint." her eyes darkened for a moment. "Yes, I know exactly who replaced my underwear with Iron Man lingerie. Don't worry." she chuckled as Darcy edged back slightly. "Any wrath I had about that particular incident was completely taken out on Clint. You're safe."

"You explain politics and cook breakfasts with Steve. Tony will occasionally allow you to hand him something. And you've taught the Norse god of Thunder how to play Wii."

"I have a weird life."

"Welcome to the real world." Natasha chuckled. "We make our living off of weird here. But Darcy?"

"Yeah?"

"If what you're afraid of is whoever abused you, don't be. Anyone who wants to hurt you will have to get through me. And Clint, and Jane, and Tony, and Pepper, and Steve, and Thor, and Bruce. Who I completely approve of, by the way."

"Not you too." Darcy groaned.

Natasha smiled wickedly. "Why? Has Clint said something?"

Darcy shook her head. "Clint approves, Tony approves, Jane approves, and now apparently you approve. People need to mind their own business once in awhile."

Natasha looked thoughtful for a moment. "Good luck. You live in the Tower of nosy people. And Darcy? I know that you won't be ready for anything, like, relationship wise, for awhile. But you can trust Bruce."

"The way you trust Clint?" Darcy teased, trying to take the attention off of her and Bruce's not relationship.

"It took me a very long time to trust him." said Natasha. "Some days I feel it took me too long."

She looked thoughtful again, and then stood up with a stretch. "Are we sparring today?"

Darcy shook her head. "I just need a bed day."

Natasha nodded. "I thought so. But Darcy? You're not alone here. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you are."


	7. Chapter 7

**I'm still amazed at how big this story is becoming! I'll be honest, I never, ever expected this sort of reception! I am so glad you all are enjoying it...and the way that I'm writing Darcy. I had debated over writing this, because I wasn't sure if I was taking her too far away from her original character, but I wanted her to be something more than Pop-Tarts and tasers, you know? **

**Because you all seem to be enjoying this, I feel that you get what I mean! And yes, while everyone is trying to push Bruce and Darcy together, they're going to have to come to things in their own time. And to answer one other reader question...did Jane send Natasha, or did Natasha send herself? She is a spy, after all...I'll let you come to your own conclusion on that one! Oh, and apparently my writing is soothing to babies. Who knew? :)**

**You guys are all awesome, and thanks for all the encouragement to keep this thing going.**

"You're coming, right?" asked Pepper, placing her hand on the counter. Anyone else would have leaned against the counter, but not Pepper Potts. She maintained good posture, and all of that shit.

"I don't dance." Darcy said firmly.

"You don't have to!" called Jane. "You can just stand by the punch table and look pretty!"

Tony had rented out some big fancy hotel, and was throwing a gala for some rich, important people in New York. That was the official Clint version of the story, anyways. It was fairly accurate, seeing as New York's top society were expected to gather at the hotel that night. Darcy couldn't have cared less about the gala, until she had found out that she was invited.

"I don't think I count as rich or important, Tony." Darcy had argued when he'd invited her.

The billionaire had shrugged. "You're important to the people in this Tower, Darcy. It'd be nice to have you there. Then Pepper can try and keep two of us in line. We might even get away with spiking the punch this year."

She'd never given him a definitive answer, and now, apparently Pepper was looking for one.

"I have absolutely nothing to wear that people wouldn't laugh at." Darcy warned.

Pepper rolled her eyes, and managed to look mature while doing so. How was that fair? "We're going dress shopping, Darcy. Trust me, apparel is the least of your concerns. Not that you should have any!"

"I...don't have a date?" Darcy tried. "And trust me, when you get around high society type parties, you had better bring a date, unless you plan on filing for sexual harassment."

"She's actually right about that one." called Clint.

Pepper turned around and grinned at him. "Do you have one?"

Clint was focused on seeing if his Fruit Loops could actually turn his milk purple, and was barely paying attention. "Have one of what?"

"A date to the gala."

He looked up in surprise, and then sulked. He literally sulked. Darcy was hoping that Jarvis was recording this right now, because she wanted to frame that picture. "Yeah. Tasha's making me go. And I have to wear a suit."

He reminded Darcy of a kid that had been told that he had to eat his broccoli, and do it while wearing an itchy sweater. "You'd look good in a suit." she offered.

"It's itchy..." he moaned. "And I have to walk around wearing a noose."

"You could think of it as a leash." Jane offered. Clint groaned.

"On the bright side..." said Darcy. "I bet Natasha likes the way you look in that suit. If you play your cards right...you might get lucky?"

Now mopey Clint was replaced with smirky Clint. "Do we really think I need a suit to get lucky with Tasha? Baby, I've been getting lucky with Tasha since before that suit was sewn!"

"TMI..." muttered Darcy.

"And if someone doesn't stop complaining about wearing a suit, getting lucky will be nothing but a distant memory."

Natasha walked over to the breakfast counter and settled herself into one of the bar stools. Clint grinned at her cheekily.

"You couldn't last a week."

Natasha's expression never changed. "Do you want to test that theory?"

Clint groaned again. "Not really."

"So you'll go, right?" asked the ever persistent Pepper, who had ignored the whole awkward assassin exchange.

"Pepper..." Darcy moaned. "I told you, I don't have a date."

"Well, that's easy." said Natasha, her eyes glittering with mischief. "Go with Bruce."

Pepper's eyes immediately lit up. "Oh, Natasha! That's perfect! He'll feel more comfortable too, if he's there with somebody he knows."

"Absolutely not!" Darcy protested. "We're just friends!"

"So go as friends." offered Clint.

"Not helping." she hissed. But Pepper was already sold on the idea, and Darcy realized that she was screwed.

Like it or not, when Pepper Potts got an idea in her head, she saw that idea through. Darcy was going to the gala with Bruce.

* * *

"Jane, just go with the red one." Darcy said firmly, watching as she and Pepper debated between four different dresses that had made the final cut as Jane's evening wear. Jane glanced over her shoulder.

"Don't you think it's a little too revealing?"

"Nope. Just enough. Especially with your brilliant mind to go with it. And Thor will probably get all hot and bothered by it, so it could make the end of the night that much better."

Jane sighed affectionately. "Just wait until you have a boyfriend, Darcy. Although...Bruce has good potential."

Darcy groaned. "Not you too! Look, I'm going with Bruce as a friend. Nothing more."

"Mhmm." Jane murmured softly. "Do you really think the red one is the best?"

"It's a wonderful color on you." Pepper said, running her fingers over the fabric.

"Okay." Jane agreed. "The red one it is." She glanced over at Darcy. "Now, it's your turn."

Darcy held up her hands in protest. "Hey! I'm not going! How do we keep forgetting this."

"Mhmm." Jane murmured again. "What color, do you think?"

"I saw a couple she would look amazing in." said Pepper. She pointed at Darcy. "Wait here."

Darcy waved them off, resigning herself to the fact that, like it or not, she was going to this gala thing. She tried to let herself enjoy the fact that she was here shopping with Tony's money, and two of the hottest women known to mankind were acting as her personal stylists, but it was hard. She hated that almost everywhere she went, and with everything she did, she could find a bad memory to go with it. This was no different. She'd gone dress shopping with Paul, once. It had been awful.

_"You look like such a slut." he sneered._

_Darcy did her best to ignore him, and tried to focus on how the deep navy dress complimented her curves. "I like it."_

_"Absolutely not." he said. "I will not have you looking like a little whore in front of our entire class. It's bad enough that you never shut up about politics, I don't need you looking like you're trying to sleep your way into them. And it's too tight. You're too fat for that sort of style, Darcy."_

_His words stung, but she'd come to learn not to let herself show how much they hurt. "Well, then I'm out of ideas."_

_He walked over to the rack and pulled off a pink dress that was three sizes too big for her. "This one."_

_She shook her head immediately. "I don't wear pink."_

_Paul rolled his eyes. "God, really Darcy? Just put the fucking dress on."_

_Darcy shook her head. "It's pink."_

_"So what?"_

_"Paul, I don't wear pink."_

_"Really? Shut up, Darcy. Stop being such a bitch...we're getting this one."_

_"I won't wear it." she said, crossing her arms. _

_He stared at her for a moment, and then when he realized how serious she was, dissolved into a dangerously calm rage._

_"Take that thing off. We're going home."_

_The look in his eyes, the pure anger, told her exactly what was going to happen there. She thought of running, but she never would. So she took off the dress, and followed her boyfriend out of the store._

"I found one for you!" called Jane. Darcy snapped herself out of her memories and tried to focus on the present.

Jane stood in the doorway, holding a beautiful, flowing dress with soft sparkles at the bottom. It was stunning. There was just one problem.

"It's pink." she said, carefully.

Jane stared at her, as if wondering why she was stating the obvious. "Yes...it's pink."

Pepper came up behind her. "It'll look amazing on you, Darce! It's like it was made for you."

"It's pink." she said again. Jane and Pepper exchanged a look, and Pepper came to sit beside Darcy.

"Is there something wrong with pink?" she asked, carefully.

Darcy hadn't expected the tears to come so quickly, and immediately tried to cover up her distress. Jane was suddenly there, wrapping her arm around Darcy's shoulder.

"Woah, woah, woah, Darcy!" she cried. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you had that much against pink!"

"It's just..."Darcy sighed. "It's just...a bad memory. I haven't worn pink since."

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Pepper.

Darcy shook her head, and Pepper sighed. "It's okay. You could've just said that you didn't like it."

Darcy didn't know how to explain that she wasn't used to just saying she didn't like something, without expecting some sort of backlash. "I can...I can wear it. The dress, I mean. It is pretty..."

Jane shook her head. "Absolutely not, Darcy. If you don't like pink, then we'll find something in a color you do like." She took Darcy's hand and led her to her feet. "Come on, Sparky. There's a dress in here for you somewhere."

"Not you too." Darcy moaned at hearing the ridiculous moniker.

Pepper came beside her. "I'm with Jane, Darcy...we'll find you a dress. And it won't be pink."


	8. Chapter 8

**Thanks again for all the support you awesome readers have been giving this story. Have a piece of virtual lasagna on me! **

Darcy stared at her reflection in the mirror, and barely recognized herself. She tried to turn her head to admire her hair style, and was immediately hissed at by Natasha.

"Hold still!" she said, her words coming out jumbled due to the hair pins in her mouth. "I'm almost done."

True to her word, the assassin stood back and gave a satisfied nod. Darcy stared at herself in the mirror, still struggling to realize that this was her own reflection.

"Wow." she said.

"Yep." said Natasha smugly. "Bruce is going to love it."

Darcy glanced down at her dress, running her hands over the soft, cascading fabric. "It looks okay?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "Stop trying to talk yourself out of believing it. You look beautiful, Darcy."

There was a knock on the door, and Natasha went over to open it. Darcy could hear her mumbling to someone, but couldn't make out the words.

"Who was that?" she asked, when Natasha had returned.

"Some asshole trying to get out of going to the gala." she replied, rolling her eyes.

"Clint?" guessed Darcy.

"Who else?" asked Natasha. The assassin looked stunning herself. She was wearing a dark gold dress that was covered in black lace, allowing the gold to shine out from beneath the black. The sleeveless dress fell to mid thigh, and hung onto Natasha' curves perfectly. Natasha also wore massive heels that Darcy couldn't imagine standing in, let alone walking in. But she did so with grace, and Darcy was slightly jealous of her composure.

Okay, maybe a lot jealous. Apparently this gala thing was a big deal, and the last thing Darcy wanted to do was to embarrass herself in front of who knows how many important people. Natasha had done her best to reassure her, but it didn't change the fact that Darcy was freaked out about messing this whole thing up. She glanced at the clock and realized that it was 6 on the button.

"Are you ready to go?" asked Natasha.

Darcy stared at her reflection in the mirror. "Um...can you tell Bruce that I need, like, two more minutes?"

Natasha nodded slowly. "Don't be too long, though. I can't promise that Tony won't try and break in here if you keep him waiting."

Darcy grinned as Natasha left, and then turned back to her reflection in the mirror. She ran her hands over the soft overskirt and gave a long sigh.

_She was 16, and used to being alone. But it didn't change how much it hurt._

_Darcy stared at herself in the mirror, wondering what she'd ever done in her life to deserve being such an outcast. It seemed like she would just never fit in._

_It was the night of her school dance. Darcy didn't want to go, but attendance was required through the phys ed dance program that was offered at her school. It was how Darcy found herself standing in the mirror, staring at herself in a red dress, and wondering if anyone would even ask to dance with her that night._

_She knew it was a mistake to come as soon as she walked through the doors. She could immediately feel herself being sized up, and then ignored, minus the occasional stare that lingered on her chest._

_She had been fine with being ignored. It really didn't bother her, because no one could hurt her if they ignored her. But when she'd stationed herself in a corner of the room, she realized that she wasn't going to get that lucky tonight. The sound of the whispers and giggles where indication enough of how well her night was going to go._

_"Look at that slut. Doesn't she know that the only thing guys like about her is her chest?" _

_That was the first comment Darcy heard. It hurt, a lot, because they had no idea who Darcy actually was. They didn't know how the mere idea of sex terrified Darcy, and they didn't care that Darcy had no control over how big her chest was. _

_"That dress is way too tight on her. No one wants to see that much of her ass!"_

_"She's so pathetic."_

_"She looks like a whore! No wonder she couldn't get a date."_

_Darcy tried to ignore their words, but they didn't stop. If anything, they got louder. By the end of the night, they were shouting it across the room. Darcy's eyes filled with tears, but no one did anything. No one ever did._

A soft knock on the door startled Darcy out of her thoughts. She walked over and opened it slowly.

"Bruce!" she cried.

"Hey." he said, smiling at her softly. His eyes widened when she fully opened the door. "Wow. Darce...you look amazing!"

It had taken awhile to find a dress that had complimented Darcy's figure and that wasn't pink. But Darcy was convinced that Jane and Pepper were miracle workers, because the end result had been amazing. The simple grey sleeveless dress had a fitted top that bunched together along her ribs, but flowed down to just above her knees. The top of the bust line was embroidered with small sequins. Natasha had pulled Darcy's hair into a stylish up do, leaving a couple curls down to frame her face.

She tucked one of those curls behind her ear, fighting back tears at the sincerity in his words. "Really?"

"Really." he said. He didn't look too bad himself, in a fitted black suit that Darcy was sure Tony had picked out. "No one's going to be able to keep their eyes off of you."

"Is that a good thing?" she asked. Bruce chuckled.

"It just means that I have to pay attention, make sure no one steals my girl when I'm not looking."

"Bruce-" said Darcy carefully, before he got carried away. "This isn't a date, right?"

He looked at her in surprise for a moment, and then quickly shook his head. "No, no it's not, Darce. I tried to tell Tony that, but..."

"It's okay." she giggled. "I just wanted to make sure. Cause...yeah."

There was a moment of silence, and then Bruce eyed her carefully. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Darcy breathed out a long sigh. "It's just...like we talked about last week? Where you have to let go of your past? I'm just having a bit of trouble letting go of mine."

Bruce smiled sadly. "I get that. But...don't be afraid, Darcy. Don't ever be afraid of them. You don't have to be anymore."

The tears did come then. "I'm just so tired of everything I do having to trigger something, Bruce! I can't even go shopping for a dress without having some memory of-" She choked back a sob, and then took a deep breath to calm herself. "Sorry, sorry. This is supposed to be fun, and Nat will kill me if I smudge my makeup."

He hugged her then, gently initiating the contact, and giving her time to pull away if she wanted to. Darcy was surprised, and couldn't stop her first thought from reaching her mouth.

"You smell really good."

He laughed at that. "Thanks?"

"Hey! Lovebirds! Hurry it up! The clothes can't come off until after the gala!" shouted Tony, via Jarvis.

Darcy rolled her eyes. "He never quits, does he?"

"No." said Bruce with a sigh. "But, Darce? I...I've got your back tonight, okay? If you want to leave, just say the word and we'll go."

"You don't like people, either, do you?" she asked dryly.

"Not unless they're as messed up as I am." he answered, offering her his arm. She took it shyly, and let him lead her into the elevator.

When they reached the ground floor, it seemed like the rest of the Avengers had descended into some form of madness.

Thor had found a football from who knows where, and was now throwing it as hard as he could at Steve. Steve, to his own credit, didn't just catch the ball, he cranked it right back to Thor. Clint, meanwhile, had his bow out, and was lining up to shoot the football in midflight. Tony was stuffing bottles of rum into his pockets, and Natasha, Pepper, and Jane were ignoring all of it.

"Um..." Darcy said.

"Wow." said Bruce, watching the mayhem for a moment. "We leave them for what, three minutes?"

"They're like children." she agreed, watching Clint shoot the football out of the air, pinning it to a wall. He grinned victoriously. "Told you I could do it!"

Pepper turned around, and winced when she saw the arrow pierced football sticking out of her wall. "Clint...you're fixing that. And you're not just asking Steve to do it, either." She caught site of Darcy, and her face lit up into a smile.

"Darcy! You look lovely! And Bruce...oh, you two look adorable together!"

"Thanks!" said Darcy, ignoring the double meaning behind her words. "Um...Pep? You might want to stop Tony."

The billionaire was, at that moment, attempting to smuggle a crate of vodka into the back of their limo. Pepper sighed. "It's time to go, guys. Tony, put the vodka down, and you can take the rum out of your pockets, while you're at it."

Tony shook his head. "Why can't we liven it up a bit? Remember what happened when Mrs. Hanson had one too many cocktails?" He smiled at the memory. "She sure was kinky, for an old gal."

"Tony..." Pepper sighed.

"You know what?" said Darcy. "I think we'll just wait in the car."

* * *

The gala was pretty much everything Darcy had imagined it would be.

There was a lot of food, a lot of rich people, and even a floor space designated for dancing. The hotel itself was massive, with high ceilings and fancy art covering every wall. Darcy received the obligatory chest stares, but other than that, was largely left alone.

Because Bruce was even less of a party person than she was, they'd found quiet corner table to hide out at.

"Do you dance?" he asked her.

"Nope." she said simply.

"Can you dance?" he tried, grinning at her.

She sighed. "Yep. But...I just prefer not to. Why, do you?"

"No!" he laughed. "I'm just...making gala conversation, you know? Isn't that what people ask each other at this sort of thing?"

"I wouldn't know." Darcy said. "I've never been to this sort of thing before."

"You're not missing much." he sighed. "How did we get dragged into this, anyways?"

"Because Tony and Pepper are persistent people?" she guessed. "And they won't take no for an answer?"

"No, we don't." said Tony, coming up behind Bruce. Bruce turned around and ran his hand through his hair with a sigh. "Why are you two not having fun?"

"We are having fun." said Darcy, glancing at Bruce, who just rolled his eyes.

"No, you're not." said Tony. "Why aren't you two dancing?"

"Neither of us dance." said Bruce dryly. "Didn't you get the memo? This is the table of people who don't dance. You're welcome to join us, but you have to sit still."

She had to chuckle at that, and Tony looked at the two of them for a moment. "I'd like it to be noted, I still approve of this."

Bruce shook his head. "We know that, Tony. You've made your point. Anything else?"

"You should dance. Even Clint and Natasha danced."

Darcy stared at him for a moment. "Is this really that important to you?"

"Yep." Tony said, returning her stare.

"He's not going to quit until we do." Bruce sighed. He stood up and offered her his hand. "Let's just get this over with?"

Darcy shrugged and took his hand, letting him help her to her feet. They glanced at Tony, who was now leaning against the table with a smug expression on his face. "Not the most romantic way anyone's ever asked the question, but it's progress."

"Wow." muttered Darcy. Bruce laughed.

"Yep, wow."

He took her arm and led her down the stares, feigning confidence that Darcy was pretty sure he wasn't feeling. They reached the edge of the dance floor, and Bruce leaned in to whisper in her ear. "Are you sure you want to do this? Because we can make an escape..."

She glanced at him, and realized that the only concern in his eyes was directed at her. "If you can do this, so can I."

"Okay." he whispered. "Now let's stop whispering before they decide that their matchmaking is working."

There were a few couples out on the floor dancing, but nowhere near enough to make Darcy feel like she wasn't on display as Bruce led her onto the floor. She reminded herself, she didn't have to be afraid, as she carefully took Bruce's hand. His arm made it's way around her waist, and she tried not to cringe at the close contact. He smiled knowingly, and took care to keep a decent amount of space between their bodies as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Is this okay?" he asked.

"Yeah." she whispered. "Thank you."

Neither of them noticed Jane making her way over to the sound booth, and whispering with the operator for a few moments.

They waited for the music to start, and began to move back and forth, keeping their movements simple.

"On the bright side, I haven't stepped on your feet." Bruce said.

"Yet." Darcy teased.

_What day is it? And in what month?  
This clock never seemed so alive  
I can't keep up and I can't back down  
I've been losing so much time_

"Do you think it was a group effort?" Darcy asked.

"To get us to the gala, or to make us dance like two awkward teenagers?"

"Both." she giggled.

"Yes, and maybe. I wouldn't put it past them." he said.

_'Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do, nothing to lose_  
_ And it's you and me and all of the people_  
_ And I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you_

Bruce took Darcy's hand and spun her awkwardly. "I'm really not good at this."

"You get an 'A' for effort, Moppy." Darcy laughed.

They danced in silence for a moment, and then Bruce cleared his throat. "Darce...about what I said at the Tower? You do look beautiful. You really do." he paused for a moment. "And you don't have to be afraid anymore."

"Thank you." she whispered.

_All of the things that I want to say just aren't coming out right_  
_ I'm tripping on words_  
_ You got my head spinning_  
_ I don't know where to go from here_

"Darce..." he murmured, his voice trailing off. They danced in silence for a moment.

"Yeah?" she asked, trying to encourage him to continue.

"Never mind." he mumbled, a faint blush creeping up his neck. She giggled.

"Are you blushing, Moppy?"

"Shit." he said, a rare curse escaping him.

"What?" she laughed.

"Darcy..." he sighed. "Tell me that you're not ready for this."

"Ready for what?" Darcy asked carefully.

Bruce's eyes never left hers. "You know exactly what."

_'Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do, nothing to prove_  
_ And it's you and me and all of the people_  
_ And I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you_

She did know, but she wasn't ready to go there. "Bruce..."

"Just tell me no." he said, sadness creasing the corners of his eyes. "I...I need to hear you say it, Darcy. Just help me out here."

She took a deep breath. "I want to be ready."

He shut his eyes and sighed deeply. "But you're not, Darcy. I can't...not after everything you went through with Paul. I can't be the next guy that hurts you."

She stared at him for a moment. "You're not Paul."

"Darce-"

"You'd never hurt me, Bruce."

He spun her around again. "I might not always be the one controlling that."

She rolled her eyes. "We are not back to this, are we?"

"Darcy..." Bruce said, exasperation tingeing his words. "I'd like to say that I could be the guy for you, but...the truth is? If I ever lost control? If I ever hurt you...I could never forgive myself."

"You won't." she whispered.

"You can't know that."

_Something about you now_  
_ I can't quite figure out_  
_ Everything she does is beautiful_  
_ Everything she does is right_

"Yes I can." she said. "Because I know _you._"

"Darce-"

"Don't 'Darce' me." she hissed. "Just listen to me, would you?"

He stayed silent, simply leading her across the dance floor.

"Bruce, you have had every opportunity to lose it. Not just with me...with everyone. But you haven't. And even when the other guy made a debut? He protected Tony! He went after the bad guys, instead of the team!"

"He punched Thor." Bruce reminded her.

"I'm pretty sure he knew that Adonis over there could take it." Darcy said dryly. "Bruce..."

_'Cause it's you and me and all of the people with nothing to do, nothing to lose_  
_ And it's you and me and all of the people_  
_ And I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you_

He shook his head. "God, Darce..." he stared at her. "This would be so much easier if there was a formula, you know that?"

She laughed then. She relaxed in his arms, and just outright laughed, because that was such a mad scientist thing to say. "What's the formula? Bruce plus Darcy minus shitty pasts plus friendly interference from Earth's mightiest heroes equals...?"

"A whole lot of trouble." he chuckled. "And possibly smugness on Tony's part. An unwelcome side effect."

The song was drawing to a close, and Bruce let his arm slip out from Darcy's waist.

"Bruce?" she said after a moment.

"Darcy." he said, smiling at her gently.

"If...if I want it, but I'm not quite ready for it..."

"We'll wait." he said simply. "We'll wait. Whenever you're ready, however long that takes."

"I don't-"

"However long." Bruce repeated, grasping her hand in his. "God, Darce. I'll wait. I don't care how long you need. I will wait."

She stared at him, feeling tears fill her eyes. This time, though, they were happy tears. "Okay." she whispered.

_What day is it?_  
_ And in what month?_  
_ This clock never seemed so alive_

**The song that Bruce and Darcy danced to was You and Me by Lifehouse. I walked down the aisle to this song over the summer, and I'm pretty fond of it! **

**The next chapter is in the works...if you're looking forward to it, would you mind hitting that review button on the bottom of your screen (Or wherever it is) and leaving me a note? ;) **


	9. Chapter 9

**Okay...so, because a couple people have asked me, I feel the need to clarify.**

**Paul will be making an appearance in this story. It won't be at the gala, but I can guarantee that he will show up. Sorry for all of you hoping for somebody to kick his ass already, that's not happening right now. But there will be an appearance at some point in the future of this.**

**I'm terrible at author's notes, so I'll say the same thing. Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the support! You guys are all awesome, and I hope I continue to win you over to that wonderful Bruce/Darcy ship. ;)**

The gala had ended without any further event. Bruce and Darcy had ignored the smug grins the entire team was sending their way, although they had noticed Steve forking over some serious cash to Tony.

They'd stopped at the doors at the end of the night, pausing for a couple of team photos that Tony had insisted Darcy, Jane, and Pepper were included in. After that, they'd climbed back into the limo and had gone on their way.

If Darcy's head had rested on Bruce's shoulder during the drive, well, that really wasn't anyone's business anyways.

* * *

Darcy had always known that Tony was a blunt guy. He knew what he liked, he wasn't shy about it, and he said things the way they were. What Darcy had never expected, however, was that he would be so forward in finding out exactly who she was.

She'd been working beside him in the lab one night after having chased Jane out to go on a date with Thor.

"Get out of here!" she'd chided, glancing at Jane's mess of a desk. "I'll clean this up. If you're late, he's going to think he did something wrong, and then he'll spend the night making sad puppy dog eyes at you."

Jane had left, grudgingly, after making Darcy promise that her papers would be taken care of.

"Would it kill you to at least put them in piles?" Darcy muttered to herself as she tried to sort through which calculations were intended for which theory.

"How old were you?"

Darcy glanced up, and was surprised to see Tony standing there, leaning against his desk. He wasn't looking at a calculation, or a computer screen, but was instead staring at her intently. That was weird.

"How old was I?" she asked cautiously.

"When it started?"

She stared at him in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

He rolled his eyes. "When your parents abused you. Someone did. Maybe not your parents...a teacher? Or an uncle?"

He definitely had her attention now. "What the hell are you talking about, Tony?"

"You're not the only one who's been abused in a lifetime, Lewis. I can tell, because you're just like me."

There were a number of possible responses running through Darcy's mind at that point. One was to smack him and walk away. Another was to cover the truth up with as many snarky remarks as she could get into one conversation.

But she ended up opting for option three, based off of the fact that Tony Stark had basically just admitted to her that he'd been abused too. She opted to tell him the truth.

"I can't remember when it started with my Mom..." she sighed. "You too?"

"Yep."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"Parents?" she asked.

"Just my Dad." he said. "The guy would get drunk, and then I'd try and make a quick exit. Because if I didn't...it was shit."

There was another pause in the conversation, and then Tony broke it.

"So it was your Mom?"

"At first." she said. "And then there was Justin. And the greasy guy from California...and then the old guy. And then a couple more drunks who's names I can't remember, and-"

"Shit, kid." Tony stared at her in disbelief.

"I know." she sighed. "After the whole date as many guys as possible thing...she married Michael. I guess he could've been a whole lot worse."

"That why you left?" he asked, pouring whiskey into two glasses and offering her one, which she gratefully accepted. "Cause of him? Michael?"

She shook her head. "I finally left because of my boyfriend."

"Shit, kid. Please tell me that he wasn't..." Tony sighed, anger creasing his forehead.

Darcy noded. "He was. But I'm over it now."

Tony shook his head. "Kid, that stuff...it's always a part of you. Don't kid yourself about it. It's not like you can just throw it away and forget about it. It'll always be there, reminding you about exactly who you are, and why you're that way."

"It doesn't bother you? That it's always there?" she asked.

"Wrong. It does. But I accept that it does. You-" Tony chuckled. "You're still trying to deny that it happened."

"Not true!" she protested. "I just don't want to deal with it."

Tony snorted in disbelief. "Does Bruce know?"

Darcy sighed. "Somewhat. He was the one who convinced me to get out of it, really." she smiled at the memory of their first coffee together. "But he doesn't push me."

"He's a good guy." Tony remarked. "You're good for him, too, Sparky." She rolled her eyes at the stupid pet name. "Just don't expect yourself to not remember what happened. You need to remember...because what's happened, I guess it sort of makes us who we are."

"Philosophy with Tony Stark?" she snorted.

"Hey!" he joked, immediately lightening the mood. "You should see me when I get into the rum!" A shadow passed over his eyes, and he took another sip of whiskey. "But you're safe here, kid. Trust me. If any of them decide to show up here, it will be my personal pleasure to give them a walk through of some of the new technology STARK Industries has developed. And I'm not talking about the phones, either."

They never discussed it again, but Darcy mentally added Tony Stark to the list of people who had her back.

* * *

"We are so dead if he finds out who did this." Darcy warned Clint, as she struggled to get comfortable.

He gave the best shrug that he could in the tight space. "YOLO, Darce. Besides, he won't be mad for long."

Darcy and Clint had formed a strange relationship, forged through late night gaming sessions and pulling pranks on the other Tower residents. They were both smart-mouths, which made the time they spent together even more entertaining. And when Darcy's devious mind combined with Clint's ninja skills at pulling of a prank, they were a force to be reckoned with.

Today was operation Star Spangled Bedazzled, aka crazy glue as many plastic gems to Steve's shield as possible. They were taking Clint's favorite route through the air vents, and planning on dropping into Steve's room when he was gone. Darcy had expressed some concern over how they planned on getting back into the event, but they'd decided that they would write it off as a test to their ninja-ness.

"What's your sprint time?" Darcy asked casually.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Clint as he pulled himself forward.

"In case he comes after us. I need to know if I can outrun you."

Clint chuckled. "Look on the bright side, Darce. You've got a boyfriend with anger issues to run to. Who've I got? Tony?"

"Um, one, he's not my boyfriend."

"Yet." Clint added. Darcy couldn't argue with him about that.

"And two, you have Natasha."

Clint laughed at that. "Yeah, I've got Natasha, who would be giving me a disapproving glare right now if she knew what we were up to. Hell, I'm pretty sure she's mentally glaring at me right now. She's got some sort of spider sense when it's me causing trouble. She'd probably help Steve wipe the floor with my ass."

Darcy snickered at the mental picture, but couldn't argue with him about that, either.

"Yeah, it's funny for you..." muttered Clint. He came to a sudden stop in the vent. "Made it!"

Darcy reached for the screwdriver that she'd stuffed into her boot and handed it to him. It was hard to do, because there wasn't exactly a lot of room to move in the Tower's vent system. But they managed it. Clint began to unscrew the vent cover, and soon they were jumping down into Steve's room.

"Phase one complete!" Clint said with clinical glee. "Now, if I were Captain America, where would I keep my shield?"

"Um, on the wall?" suggested Darcy, pointing to where it was hanging. "On display, apparently?"

Clint practically giggled. "Oh, this is too perfect." He reached into the bag and pulled out the supplies they'd bought earlier that week in preparation for the specific moment.

"Let's do this." Darcy said, pulling the shield down from the wall.

It took them a good hour to finish, but the end result was beautiful. Steve's shield glittered on the wall, completely covered in blue, pink, and white jewels. They'd even added a couple complimentary designs to the handle.

"Wow." said Darcy as they stood back to admire their work. She motioned to Clint to take a picture of her posing by it, and then returned the favor to him.

"It's so pretty!" snickered Clint. "Man, we are dead."

"He's going to know exactly who did it, won't he?" Darcy said.

"Yep. But I don't mind taking credit for this one." he said. "Let's hit the road, Lewis, before Captain Spangly Pants makes his triumphant return."

They hid in a roomier set of vents for the rest of the day, eating M+M's and laughing hysterically when Steve's shouts of horror echoed through the Tower.

* * *

Later that night, when they'd both come to the conclusion that Steve wasn't going to kill them on the spot, they'd crept out of the vents, covered in dust and the occasional feather.

They'd opted to exit via the kitchen vent, right by where everyone but Steve was eating supper. Darcy heard a yelp of surprise when Clint popped out of the vent, and then received multiple stares of disbelief when she followed.

"Sup?" asked Clint as he helped Darcy out of the ceiling.

"Um..." Jane said, as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Wow." said Bruce, shaking his head. Darcy caught his eyes and grinned at him. He couldn't help but return it.

"So, uh...where were you two all day?" asked Pepper.

"Hiding." Clint said. "And laughing. Mostly laughing."

"Oh god, I love you both." said Tony, realizing what they'd been up to. "You did it, didn't you?"

"Yes we did." Darcy said saucily, exchanging a high-5 with Clint.

"Clint..."Natasha scolded.

They sat down at the table, and Darcy grabbed a couple pieces of pizza.

"Hold still." mumbled Bruce as he reached towards her. He pulled a large dust bunny out of her hair and shook his head. "You guys were in the vents?"

"Yep." Clint said as he stuffed his face with pizza. "It was a good place to hide."

"What exactly did you two do to poor Steve?" asked Pepper. "He wouldn't tell us."

Clint pulled out his phone and pulled up the pictures. "We were artistic." He stuffed another piece of pizza in his mouth.

Bruce looked at it and immediately started laughing. "You bedazzled his shield?"

"Isn't that like, treason?" asked Jane.

"Oh god, Jarvis, are you getting this?" Tony asked. "I'm going to frame this moment."

At that moment, Steve walked into the room. He took one look at Clint and Darcy, and his face clouded over.

"Shit." Clint swore. He stood up, grabbed another three pieces of pizza, and then took off at a sprint.

"Bye Clint!" Darcy called, laughing as she shuffled a little bit closer to Bruce, just to be on the safe side. "Hi Steve!"

Steve stared at her for a moment, and then broke into a grin. "I don't know why he's running. All I was going to ask is if you two thought you could pull the same sort of thing on Fury's eye patch."

**After all the angst, I had to give ya'll some fluff. I'm a fluff writer by nature, so I figured a lighter chapter couldn't hurt anyone, right?**


	10. Chapter 10

**And...here I am again! I'm being spoiled with a ton of extra writing time...So I figured why not keep updating this thing for my readers?**

**Thanks again, you guys. You spoil me with all your support. ;)**

Darcy was frustrated.

She was frustrated with her day, which had been decidedly sucky due to the team's absence. She was frustrated with her toilet, which had backed up and then overflowed all over her bathroom. (That had been so much fun to clean up.) She was frustrated with her hair, which was acting like a bad 80's hair do. (More like a hair don't.)

More than anything, she was frustrated with herself. She'd watched Jane and Thor say goodbye that morning. She'd watched how tenderly Thor had kissed Jane, and how she hadn't flinched when he'd reached up to brush a strand of hair off her face.

She knew that she shouldn't hold it against either of them, but she was annoyed with it. They were so perfect, for each other and as a couple. Jane wasn't having mental breakdowns over the wrong color of dress, and Thor wasn't having to tiptoe around her or having to worry about saying the wrong things. Hell, they'd probably end up settling down and raising perfect little hell raising thunder babies, and Darcy would still be trying to get through her first kiss with Bruce.

Okay, she was having a bad day. And it wasn't looking to get any better.

So Darcy did what any normal 21st century young adult would do when they're having a bad day. She logged onto the internet, and clicked onto Google.

She wasn't sure what to search for, so she searched for the answer to the biggest question in her life at this point.

How to get over an abusive relationship

She sat back in her leather chair as she waited for the laptop to load the page, and then gave a snort of disbelief when she saw the results. There was a Wikihow for it, because wasn't there a Wikihow for everything?

"How to move past an abusive relationship. 6 steps with pictures." Darcy had to laugh at that. As if it was that easy. Curiosity, however, required that she at least take a look at the page. She clicked onto it and smoothed her plaid shirt over her waist. Maybe it wasn't the most conventional method of moving past her shit, but Darcy was curious what the internet had to say.

_'Congratulations on leaving this abusive relationship!' _the page read. Darcy laughed again. Holy shitty fruitcake of hell, talk about fruity. She continued to read though, and soon her chuckles turned to contemplation.

Maybe it wasn't the deepest, most well thought out guide to healing, but the main point was driven home. On an impulse, Darcy grabbed a spiral notebook off of her nightstand and scribbled down the 6 steps. Not that she thought they would really help, but hey, at least they'd give her something to do other than mope about her friends being gone.

* * *

Darcy read over the steps that night, after coming to the sad realization that her late night insomnia buddy, aka Clint, wouldn't be back anytime soon. On any other night, they'd pop 5 or 6 bags of popcorn and put them into a bowl, and then eat it while watching dumb late night talk shows. But because Clint wasn't here, and she didn't feel like doing it alone, she settled for reading over her list.

_1. Know that you are a wounded person, and that your main task now is to repair and heal yourself._

_ 2. Whatever happened, the other person has to bear responsibility for the abuse; it was not your fault and you were the recipient of abuse._

_3. Make a plan to heal._

_4. Do things that make you happy, and that make you grow into a mature person._

_5. Manage time in order to nurture yourself. _

_6. Spend some time with friends, family, and other people who care about you._

It wasn't the most conventional list she'd ever made, but it was something, and it wasn't a therapist. Because Darcy Lewis didn't need a therapist, thank you very much. She did things her own way, and that was that.

She started with step one. She knew that she was a wounded person. That wasn't hard to accept. And she wanted to heal. So she grabbed a pen and crossed step one out.

She went to step two. It was harder than step one. Because it was easy to blame herself for what happened. If she had just tried harder, been a better daughter, a better girlfriend, maybe they wouldn't have had a reason to hate her.

She left step two alone, figuring that it would be a process, anyways.

She had just started into trying to figure out step three when she heard a knock on her door. She sat up and walked across the white, fluffy shag carpet that she'd picked out with Pepper's assistance, assuming that it was her or Jane. When she opened it, she was surprised to see Bruce standing in the doorway, looking tired and disheveled with two steaming cups of some fancy smelling tea in hand. His face was streak with grime, and his shirt was rumpled, but the sight of him still made Darcy's heart rate rise.

"Hey." he said gently.

"Hey." she said. "What're you guys doing back here? Not that I'm complaining."

"We beat the bad guys." Bruce said. "Literally. We beat them into the concrete."

"Yay avengers!" Darcy cheered quietly. "You wanna come in?"

They sat on the floor, using the white shag rug as padding for themselves, and setting the tea on the coffee table.

"So how was your day?" Bruce asked, grinning at her.

"100% shit. How was yours?"

He stared at her. "The same. Why was yours so bad?"

She tried to ignore the stupid tears, but he didn't. "Hey, hey." He soothed. "It wasn't me, was it?"

"No!" she half laughed, half cried. "I just missed you."

He grinned at that. Not just a small grin either, but a big, shit eating grin. "Really?"

"Yeah. And then I felt stupid, because we aren't really together yet, but-"

"Shhhh." Bruce said. "Don't ruin it. That was almost a moment."

Darcy took a sip of the tea, which tasted like it should have come out of one of those gourmet tea shops. It was fantastic. "I made a list."

Bruce's forehead creased in confusion. "A list?"

"About how I'm going to get over Paul. I got it off Wikihow."

"Wiki what?" he said, looking even more confused.

"You're kidding me, right?" she groaned. "Wikihwow. It tells you how to do anything, like how to become a ninja spy or how to stalk a celebrity without getting caught? You seriously don't know what Wikihow is?"

The look of absolute puzzlement on Bruce's face was absolutely priceless. "Um...no?"

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, you know what? I'll give both you and Steve a run down one day. But hey. I made a list. Wanna see it?"

Bruce still looked a little bit lost, but he nodded. "Sure."

She handed it to him, and sipped her tea as he read over it carefully. He looked up and grinned at her. "This is the Darcy Lewis recovery program?"

"Hey!" she shrugged, taking it back. "I may not be the star spangled man, but this chick does have a plan."

"Step 3 make a plan." he said wryly. "Which one are you on? Step two?"

She shrugged again. "Step two is a work in progress. I just started it tonight, and step two might take a little bit of time."

"That's fair." Bruce agreed, leaning his head back on her chair and giving a contented sigh. "Darcy? Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." she said.

He ran his fingers through his hair, which was an unfair distraction. Not that Darcy was going to protest. "I-I don't know. Maybe it's a guy thing, and that's why I don't get it, but...why don't you like to be touched?"

"What?"

He sighed, and reached out to stroke her arm. She involuntarily flinched, and Bruce nodded his head. "That. He hit you, didn't he?"

"Yeah." Darcy sighed, not even bothering to deny it. "I thought you knew that?"

"I thought he might have. I figured he was verbally abusive..." his face clouded over briefly. "Darce? He didn't...you know?"

She realized what this was going and mentally begged him not to go there. "He didn't what?"

He stared at her, and Darcy could see rage clouding his eyes. "You know what."

She opted for the truth. "He wasn't the first one."

"God, no-"

"Bruce..."

His hands immediately covered his head, and he began to shake. "No, no, no, no, no..." he met her eyes, and the rage in them terrified her.

"Bruce?" she said, unable to keep the panic from tingeing her voice. He shook his head, and began to breath deeply.

"It's okay, Darce. It's okay." he muttered, as if he was soothing the both of them. He looked up, but Darcy could see that his breathing was still heavy. She stared at him warily, until he forced a smile.

"Don't worry. The other guy had enough time out today, he doesn't really want to make another appearance, either." He took a deep breath. "Why didn't you tell me?"

She shrugged her shoulders, still staring at him in caution. She'd never seen him so close to edge of fury before, and she wasn't going to lie. It had freaked her out a little bit. "I thought you'd figured it out. And I figured that even if you hadn't...you knew enough."

He shook his head. "Damn it Lewis. What am I going to do with you?"

"Make passionate love to me in an elevator?" she guessed, and then immediately winced. "Sorry...snarkiness. I'm trying to stop."

Bruce looked at her in confusion. "Why? It suits you."

"Thanks." she said. "But...it's a defence mechanism, I guess. It's how I keep people away from me. And I'm getting sick of doing that."

"I get it. Tony's the same way. I guess I can be too." Bruce admitted, before falling into silent thought for a moment. "Do you even want that?"

"Want what?"

He blushed slightly. "Passionate love. Probably not in an elevator, but...you know what I mean. When we get there, if we get there, is that something you would ever want?"

Darcy blew out a long sigh. "Uh-God Bruce. I don't know. It's just...really, really bad memories. And I have never, ever felt good during it."

Bruce's eyebrows went way, way up, and Darcy had to laugh at the expression on his face. "What?"

"Darcy," he chuckled. "If it doesn't feel good, then you aren't doing it right."

She choked on her tea. "Whoa, Moppy. Did not see that one coming."

They sat in comfortable silence for awhile, before Bruce broke it again. "Can I see that list again?"

"Um, sure?" Darcy passed the purple notebook across the table to Bruce, who read over the steps again.

"What do you say about combining steps 4 and 6 tomorrow?" he asked.

"Huh?" she said, cursing herself for her less than intellectual response.

"Let's go and do something you enjoy. Together. We'll write it off as therapy."

Darcy laughed. "A date?"

He shook his head. "Not a date, therapy. I'll go as your sort of not really friend, and you can be the person recovering by doing something we enjoy. We can explain it to Tony and everyone else that way, too."

She grinned. "Okay, Why not?"

He leaned in. "So tell me, Darcy Lewis. What could we do tomorrow that would make you completely and utterly happy?"

A slow smile grew on her face. She knew just the thing.

**Just a note, those are the actual steps off of Wikihow. And the celebrity and ninja pages do exist! Gotta love it!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Alright, tough question time.**

**In regards to Bruce and Darcy having sex, because yeah, that seems like the inevitable thing that'll come eventually...I'm just having writer's indecision here. So this is your vote. Are you all okay with that sort of a chapter (I'm not graphic, I promise!) in here? Should I move it to M if I do that? (Again, it would NOT be graphic!) Would it be a good idea to put a warning in the chapter BEFORE I write that sequence, so that anyone who doesn't want it can just skip the chapter? (I'd publish two at once, so that everyone does have something to read!) Would you prefer a separate one shot related to this story about that? **

**Basically, there are three options. 1. No chapter, I just skip that part of it. I don't really want to do that, but I'd be willing to leave it if there was a lot of reader protest. **

**2. Non graphic chapter within the story**

**3. Separate oneshot**

**If you want to leave me a review, or drop me a PM on your opinions...I'm leaving this one up to you guys. If there was to be no chapter within the story, I'd probably write a oneshot regardless. So yeah...can some people give me opinions on this? It wouldn't happen for quite a while, but there are some subplots and events that I have in mind, that would be dependent on whether or not the chapter happens. So I sort of need to know right away, just for writing's sake. If you could let me know, that would be fabulous!**

**Also, tomorrow's Remembrance Day, if you're Canadian. I don't know how many of my readers are that, but having married into the military, it's a lot closer to my heart right now than it's ever been. So while I hope my fellow Canucks are enjoying their long weekend, I'd also ask that you take a moment tomorrow to think about the men and women who have given up so much in order to give us our freedom. As a military wife, I know how hard it is to send the person you love off to go defend their country. And I know how hard it is for my husband to be the one leaving his family behind. So if you are serving, or have served, or love someone who is serving, thank you for what you do. Thank you for keeping the peace and preserving our freedom. Thank you for letting your loved ones go. And lest we forget. (I'm allowed to be emotional about this, okay?) :)**

**So with that out of the way, on with the story!**

She hadn't exactly expected him to say yes when she'd suggested her plan. But he hadn't even blinked when he'd agreed to go. And she was pretty sure that he'd enjoyed not telling Tony where they were going, leaving the billionaire in baffled curiosity.

Darcy had heard about it from some of the girls who she'd gone to college with, and had always wanted to see what it was like. That was why she and Bruce were heading to the Bronx zoo for the day. Not only was it the largest zoo in the world, but Bruce had already warned her that they wouldn't be able to see it all in a day. Which was exactly the sort of challenge Darcy enjoyed.

"Are we there yet?" she asked, trying to kill New York's infamous traffic with her glare. She wanted to see as much of the zoo as they possibly could before it closed. And New York traffic wasn't cooperating.

"Not yet." Bruce laughed. "Gotta love New York drivers." He hit the brakes in order to avoid hitting someone who had cut into the lane in front of them.

They'd mapped it out on Google Maps, and what was apparently supposed to be a 26 minute drive had turned into over an hour in the car. Darcy couldn't say she really minded, though, especially when Bruce attempted to entertain her with his ridiculously cheesy animal jokes. (What did the cow say to his girlfriend? You're like no udder!) They'd swapped a couple stories about the good memories they'd had from growing up, a welcome change from their usually angsty background story exchanges.

When they'd finally made it into the parking lot, Bruce parked the black SUV they'd borrowed with permission from Pepper with a grin. "Ready to go?"

"Oh yeah." she said, smiling back. They walked up to the teal and brown 'Bronx Zoo' sign, and Bruce stepped forward to pay for their admission, despite Darcy's protests.

"Not a date, remember?" she'd said.

"Doesn't matter. I always treat a lady when I go out with her." Bruce had replied with a wink.

"You sound like Steve." she'd grumbled.

They made it past a group of shrieking children with party hats and tired parents attempting to herd them, and then Bruce opened the map that they'd received at the gate. "Where do you wanna go first?" he'd asked.

Darcy looked around his arm so that she could see the map. "African plains?"

"Sounds good." They started to make their way through the zoo's paths, until they'd reached the African plains stretch of the zoo. They paused to let a child chasing parent to run by, and then continued on their way.

"Kids." Bruce said, laughing.

Darcy decided to blurt out the question. "Do you want kids?"

_"Of course I don't want kids." Paul had sneered. "Why the hell would I want kids?"_

_"For the same reason our parents did?" Darcy asked. "Don't you ever want to have a family?" Paul rolled his eyes._

_"I want to do things with my life, Darcy." Paul said, looking up from his term paper to glare at her. "Unless you plan on giving up YOUR life, and YOUR career so that we can have a couple little brats running around, we are not having kids."_

"Maybe." Bruce said carefully. "Darce-I don't even know if I can. We'd have to...you know, run some tests, to see if I could, and if there would be any side affects from my...condition. And I'm old enough as it is-"

"I didn't ask if you could have kids." Darcy interrupted. "I asked if you wanted them."

Bruce blew out a long sigh. "Yeah, I do. I'd love kids, Darcy, but...call it me thinking that my past is going to screw me up...I don't know if I'd be a good Dad. Did I ever tell you about mine?"

"I don't think so." she answered, pausing to glance at a crossroads sign that was intended to give people who couldn't read maps some indication of which direction they should go. "And I think we're going the wrong way."

"Oops." Bruce chuckled. They began to walk towards the African Plains, going the right way this time. "Ah, Darce. He was a bastard. He never even wanted me. He was...I guess my Grandpa wasn't much better than he was, and my Dad thought that it was a genetic thing."

"You're kidding, right?"

"Nope. He called it a monster gene, tried to say that it was the reason for the way he acted, and the way he treated my Mom and I."

"You've never told me about your Mom." Darcy said softly.

Bruce shook his head. "My Mom...her name was Rebecca. My Dad killed her, Darcy. Right in front of me. She was...ah, it's a messed up story. He believed that I was a monster, like him, and avoided me completely. He tried to keep my Mom away from me, and he'd leave me with this Nurse. You'd call her a Nanny, I guess."

"Holy shit." Darcy said, stopping in her tracks. "Why the hell have I been the only one whining about my childhood?"

Bruce grabbed her hand. "For one thing, it isn't whining. And I've had more time to deal with it than you have." He paused for a moment. "Anyways, he thought I was a monster, and began to use it as an excuse to beat me. My mom...she'd try to stop him, and then he'd beat her too. It was sick, Darce. It was really sick."

"Is-is that how she died?" Darcy dared to ask.

"Sort of." he sighed. "We were going to run away. We had everything, and we were packing the car...he wasn't supposed to be home yet. We were supposed to get away. But we didn't. And then he killed her."

"Bruce..." Darcy moaned softly. "Bruce, I am so sorry."

He gave her a sad smile. "You know what the worst part was? After all those years I'd spent trying to convince myself that I wasn't a monster, and that I wasn't like him? I turned into one."

"He's not a monster." Darcy said, surprising herself by coming to the Hulk's defence. Bruce raised his eyebrows at her in surprise.

"You sure about that?"

She nodded her head. "Yep. Because he's a part of you, Bruce. You can deny it all you want, but I've seen the footage. He's protecting the same people that you would. He's just being more big and angry about it. And I will never believe that you're a monster."

He smiled fondly. "Whatever you say."

"Don't brush me off." she warned him. He chuckled.

"Never. But I'm pretty sure we're supposed to be enjoying ourselves right now. Not being all depressing, you know?"

"Yep." Darcy agreed. "But for the record, I think you'd be a pretty awesome Dad."

Bruce rolled his eyes. "You're about the only one, but...thanks anyways Darce." He pointed to a sign indicating the direction of the lions. "And I think we found the right place!"

They walked into the exhibit, pausing to allow an older couple shuffle by them. They walked up to the enclosure, and Darcy immediately giggled when she realized that there were lion cubs in the enclosure. The four little cubs were running around the enclosure, kicking up dust as they tackled each other to the ground. A full grown lioness, who Darcy thought was the mother, watched the gathered crowd with a glare as she lay sprawled out across a rock.

"They are so cute!" Darcy giggled, pulling out her camera to snap some shots of them.

"Did you know that lions use their tails to flirt?" asked Bruce.

"Does anyone know that other than you?" Darcy teased. "And seriously?"

Bruce laughed. "Yep. The reason they have the tasseled tail is so that they can signal each other. They're the only member of the cat family with a tail like that."

"How do you even know that?" Darcy asked, as they watched the cubs playing for a couple more moments.

"The only TV channel in English that I got in Calcutta was Animal Planet. The weird stuff is the stuff that sticks with you."

"Amen to that." Darcy agreed, as they continued on their way.

They spent the day wandering through the zoo, laughing and talking the entire way. Bruce listened patiently when Darcy launched into one of her tirades about today's problems in politics (It was triggered by the monkeys, okay?). She let him make use of his Animal Planet knowledge, at which point he began to try and remember the most obscure facts about any animal they saw. (She was pretty sure he was making some of them up, because a giraffe had to sleep for more than 1-12 minutes at a time!)

They'd made their way through the African Plains, and then had proceeded through the less populated Madagascar section. Darcy had been freaked out by a Madagascar hissing cockroach, and then they'd both been properly disturbed by a couple of the lemurs getting busy. (Nobody needed to see that!)

"That is so Tony." Darcy giggled as they'd walked away from the engaged monkeys.

"Except Pepper would never go for that." Bruce said. "Hey, I've got an idea. Do you care where we go next?"

Darcy shrugged. "Not really. Why?"

"I think we should go to the Children's Zoo."

She had to laugh. "Seriously? What, are we embracing our inner child?"

"Hey! Can you honestly say that you've ever had the opportunity to feed a goat?" Bruce pointed to the brochure. "Or shimmy up a spider web? Darcy, we have got to try this!"

His earnestness as he said it was adorable, and Darcy eventually agreed to go along with it. "But if we get kicked out by concerned parents, I totally blame you for this."

They'd successfully navigated their way to the Children's Zoo, and Darcy had to admit, it was pretty awesome.

"Okay, so what exactly is there to do here?" she asked.

"Well, we can apparently hop like a frog, or crawl like a tortoise...Or we could have our picture taken with a chicken."

Darcy snorted. "Wow, seriously?"

Bruce looked at her seriously, his eyes glittering with mischief. "What? You don't want to hop like a frog?"

"I like my dignity intact, thank you." she'd replied.

"Suit yourself." said Bruce. With that, he dropped down into a crouch, and began to hop along the pathway. Darcy was pretty sure there were people questioning his mental sanity at that point.

"Bruce!" she shrieked, as he stood up to grin at her mischeviously. "Oh my god, you're like a two year old!"

He laughed. "Dignity still intact, Lewis?"

She laughed with him. "Come on, I still want to feed those goats."

They'd done just that. And when the day had finally drawn to a close, Darcy was more relaxed than she could ever remember being. They'd stopped to buy a pre-supper ice cream, and were walking along with the hordes of people leaving the zoo.

"That was way fun." she admitted.

"I can't remember the last time I've been to the zoo." Bruce said, his words mumbled as he tried to keep his cookie dough ice cream from melting all over his hands.

He'd held the SUV door open for her like a gentleman, and then they'd driven back to the tower. Darcy pulled her camera out of her purse and began to look through the pictures they'd taken that day. She began laughing when she found the pictures of the goat feeding. "I look so freaked out."

Bruce laughed. "I knew they wouldn't bite your hand off, Darce. You could've just taken my word for it."

"I wasn't sure, okay?" she protested. She laughed even harder when she reached the pictures they'd shot at the animal photo booth. "Oh, god Bruce. I am framing this!"

He looked over and moaned. "Seriously?"

Bruce and Darcy were kneeling down by a chicken in the picture. Darcy looked radiant, although she was keeping a bit of distance from the chicken. Bruce, however, looked like he'd just run away from a tornado. His hair was sticking up in every direction, and there was a smudge of dirt on his face from where a llama had decided to lick him.

"That is awesome." She laughed, while he just rolled his eyes. She turned her camera off and dug her phone out of her purse. She'd opted to leave it in the SUV for the day, and yelped when she saw the missed call history.

"What?" Bruce asked, glancing over at her for a moment before returning his eyes to the road.

"37 missed calls? What the hell?" as she said it, her phone began to ring again. She answered it immediately.

"Hey, this is Darcy."

"Darce? It's Clint. Where the hell are you? I've been trying to ahold of you all day!"

"Who is it?" Bruce mouthed to her.

"Clint." She answered, before replying to the caller in question. "Why? Is something wrong?"

"Is Bruce there?" Clint asked, conveniently ignoring the question.

"Um...yeah?"

"Darcy, I need you to put him on right now."

She handed him the phone with a confused shrug. Bruce pressed it to his ear as he made a lane change. "Hey, what's up Clint?"

Almost immediately, a shadow crossed his face. He glanced over at Darcy, who mouthed "What's wrong?" to him. He just shook his head.

"When?" he asked, frowning as they continued to drive back to the Tower.

"Okay. We're about 20 minutes away." he said. He glanced over at Darcy.

"Yeah, I'll tell her. Okay. Yep. Bye."

"What's wrong?" Darcy asked, as soon as he hung up the phone.

Bruce ran his hand through his hair. "Um, Darce? I think we've got a problem."

She began to feel the familiar panic of anxiety creeping up on her, and shoved it away the best she could. "What's wrong?" she asked, for the third time.

Bruce stared at the road for a moment. "What was your step Dad's name?"

"What?"

"Your step Dad's name. What was it?"

Darcy gripped the door handle with all her might. "Michael Lewis. Why, Bruce?"

Bruce blew out a long sigh. "Apparently he's at the Tower right now. And he wants to see you."

**And...that's where we leave it for now! (I know, I'm mean. I'd apologize...but I'm not feeling terribly sorry!)**

**Thanks to the internet for helping me out with all that wonderful research that went into this chapter. I have never been to Bronx Zoo, so I apologize if my representation of it isn't bang on. The story of Bruce's Dad, Brian Banner, is 100% Wikipedia certified, although in this story Bruce did NOT kill his Dad. The story about Rebecca Banner and how she died, and the reason Bruce's dad was abusive towards him is the actual background story as told by Marvel comics. (Research on writer's part!)**

**And yes, lions do use their tails to flirt. And giraffes do only sleep for 1-12 minutes at a time. See, even I learn stuff writing this!**

**Reviews aren't guaranteed to make me write faster, but they do help! **


	12. Chapter 12

***Jaw drops***

**I hadn't planned on updating today, but when I saw the number of reviews and how everyone was kind of demanding me to get my butt going on the update, I was a little bit stunned. You guys are all so amazing! Give yourselves a pat on the back, and thanks for making this writer's day!**

**Oh, and I went and saw Thor 2 yesterday...*Gives fan girl squeal* I won't say anything for the sake of those of you who haven't seen it, but THAT WAS TOTALLY WICKED!**

**Okay, I'm done. Enjoy the chapter!**

She was losing control.

Darcy gripped the door handle like it was her best friend, but in truth, it was more than that. It was the only thing keeping her grounded in reality at that moment.

"Darcy?"

She could hear him faintly, trying to talk to her, and promise her that it would be okay. But it wouldn't. Because they had found her. And while Bruce didn't know what meant, she did.

It meant that she was going to have to run again. Run away, far from where Michael or her Mom or Paul could ever find her. She would have to run away from Bruce, and Jane, and Clint, and Natasha, and Steve, and Tony, and Thor, and Pepper...all people she'd come to care about.

But she couldn't go back to it. She couldn't go back to what she was. Not now. She couldn't go back to _him._

A hand reached out and was shaking her arm. She shrieked and pulled away.

"Darcy!" he said, louder this time. She forced herself to focus, forced herself to look up and look into his eyes. Bruce forced a smile as he stared back at her, seeing the agony in her face.

"Babe, breath." he said, stroking her arm. "It'll be alright."

She shook her head. "No, it won't." She began to cry, softly, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

"Ah, Darce..." he sighed.

"I can't go back." she whimpered. "I can't...Bruce, I just can't!"

"Darcy." he said firmly. "I will handle this. You have to trust that, okay? I'm not going to leave you alone on this one. Just don't be afraid."

"You don't know them." she sobbed. "You weren't there, Bruce."

"You're afraid." Bruce said simply. "And that's okay. But you have to understand that fear isn't real. Darce, it's a product of our imaginations, and the only place it even exists is in our thoughts of the future. You're afraid of them coming back for you, but you don't even know if that's going to happen. And being afraid of something that right now isn't, and may never happen? Darcy, that's craziness!"

He wrapped his arms around her, and held her until her sobs subsided. She finally took a deep breath and sat up to face him. "For a not boyfriend, you're really good at this."

He chuckled. "Even as your not boyfriend, I've got your back. Okay?"

"One of these days we'll update that status to boyfriend, if you're okay with that?"

Bruce smiled warmly. "Whenever you're ready, I'm more than okay with that. But maybe we'll hold off on telling Tony?"

"He'll find out anyways." Darcy warned him.

"Yeah, probably. But we can keep him in suspense for awhile."

Darcy gripped the door handle. "But you've got my back?"

He squeezed her hand. "Always."

* * *

When Darcy had walked into the main living room of the Tower, she'd nearly burst into laughter. As stressed as she was, the scene she was confronted with was too funny for her to not be amused.

She wasn't sure if Tony or Natasha had said anything to the rest of the team about who exactly Michael was, but they were clearly making him as uncomfortable as possible. Michael, older, wider, and balder since she'd last seen him, was sitting on one of the couches and looking fairly nervous at this point. That was new to Darcy. She could never recall seeing him nervous about something. But at the same time, he was on her turf now.

Tony and Pepper were sitting across from him, intense glares on both of their faces. That was intimidating enough. When you added in Thor and Steve glaring from across the room, that was even worse. Darcy looked around the room, and she had to grin when she spotted Natasha. She was sitting on one of the barstools at the kitchen counter, holding a massive mother fucking dagger in one hand, and stroking it with the other. (Darcy had become convinced that Natasha was going to make knife porn a tangible thing.)

Clint had taken it a step further. It took her a moment to find him, and she did laugh when she saw him. He was peering down from a vent, right about Michael's head. He was trying to look intimidating, but Darcy caught the sparkle of mischief on his face as he pretended to spit down onto Michael's head. Michael looked up and shifted uncomfortably, and then looked back down at his feet.

Then he caught sight of Darcy.

It was like a cloud passed over his face, and he immediately rose to his feet. "How dare you?" he snarled.

She felt the fear creeping in, but she pushed it out of her mind. He didn't have a chance at reaching her, anyways. Tony and Steve were immediately there, creating a human barrier between the two of them.

"Think very carefully about what your next words will be." Tony growled. Darcy had never seen him quite this aggressive before, and while it scared her slightly, she knew that it wasn't directed at her.

Michael cleared his throat, and stepped down, although he continued to glare at Darcy. "I'd like to speak to you alone. Now."

"Like that'll ever happen." said Pepper. "Darcy, hun, you say the word, and he's out of here. You don't even have to talk to him."

Darcy took a deep breath, and glanced at Bruce, who shrugged. "Actually, I don't mind. We can talk alone, Michael, but I can't be held responsible for anything that happens if you do something stupid."

"You can use my office." Tony offered. Darcy was positive that Jarvis was monitoring the room, which would mean that the team would be keeping an eye on her. "I can bring you there right now, if you want."

"Thanks Tony." she said softly. He led them into the elevator, which they rode up in an awkward silence.

Tony opened the door for her and gave a small smile. "I'll be right out here, okay kid? Do you want me to bring Bruce up as well?" There was no teasing in his voice this time.

"Please?" she whispered. Tony looked uncomfortable, but he reached out and gave her shoulders a squeeze.

"You got it, Sparky."

Michael walked into the room, and then Darcy followed. Tony closed the door behind them softly.

* * *

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Michael said, as soon as the door had closed. No 'hi, how's it going, good to see you, glad to know you're still alive'. That wasn't the way Michael operated. Darcy took a deep breath, and tried to remind herself; she wasn't a victim, she was a survivor.

"Pardon?" she said, cocking her head to one side.

"You disappear completely, and not just for a couple days. For _years_, Darcy. We get a call from your fiancé saying that you're gone. You don't leave any indication of where you're going, or why you left. What the hell? After everything I did for you-"

"For one thing." Darcy interrupted. "I owe you absolutely nothing. Don't you dare try to guilt me into believing otherwise. And for another, you know exactly why I left."

Michael threw back his head and laughed. "Really? Paul said you'd try and play this card. Please tell me that you're not trying to whine about him abusing you. That boy was better than you deserved."

Darcy shook her head. "He did. And I didn't deserve any of it. I NEVER deserved any of it, Michael. I tried to...god, I tried to make everyone happy. I didn't deserve you hating me, and I didn't deserve Mom hating me."

"You never listened to what we had to say. All you could ever do was bitch and gripe, and even when you had a good young man who loved you-"

"You're wrong." she said, simply. "And you know it. You can keep trying to justify what you did, and what Paul did, but you're wrong. I don't expect you to listen. There was a reason why I left." She thought for a moment, and remembered the question that had been on her mind since she found out she was here. "How did you even manage to find me?"

Michael rolled his eyes and reached into his jacket pocket, pulling out several pictures of Darcy and the team at the gala. Darcy winced when she remembered the photographers. She'd never even considered that the pictures would find their way back to her family.

"People tend to notice the little slut slinking around with the Avengers. Any more questions?" Michael asked smoothly. "Because if there aren't, then we are fucking well going home."

"I am home." Darcy said boldly. "This is home now."

Michael shook his head. "These people have better things to keep you around as their stupid little bitch. What, you think they feel sorry for you? If you weren't fucking half of-"

At that moment, Tony's office door flew open, and immediately Bruce was there. Darcy hadn't even realized that she was shaking as he guided her over to a chair. She took a deep breath while Bruce gripped her hand in his. "I've got this, okay?"

She nodded, and Bruce turned to face Michael, who looked perturbed at being interrupted. "I don't know who you think you are-"

"If you did, you'd probably be a lot quieter right now." Bruce said, half to himself. "And you don't really need to know. I'm with Darcy, and that's all that matters."

"We are-"

"Done." Bruce said firmly. "Or at least you are. The door's that way."

"And we can be very persuasive in convincing you to leave." Tony offered.

Michael stood to leave, but stopped to give one final parting shot to Darcy. "I'll be letting both your mother and Paul know where you are. You can expect a visit from them soon."

"Is that a threat?" asked Tony. "Because if we're threatening each other, I happen to know a couple people who know hundreds of ways to kill someone and make it look like an accident. Just threatening, you know."

Michael and Tony had a brief stare down, but Michael soon backed down. Darcy wasn't surprised. Tony was capable of being intimidating, if he wanted to. Michael held up his hands in surrender and then walked out of the office.

"This isn't over." he told Darcy.

"Jarvis, slash his tires." Tony ordered, as soon as he had left. "Blow up his car. Blow up _him_, for all I care. Just do something destructive."

"Happily, sir." Jarvis replied. Darcy snorted, and then sank into Tony's big, comfortable leather office chair. Bruce started to rub her shoulders gently.

"You okay kid?" Tony asked. She shook her head, and tried to fight off a wave of nausea. Bruce seemed to notice, and began to lead her over to a bathroom connected to Tony's office. He held back her hair and rubbed her back soothingly while she briefly worshiped the porcelain mantle. When she had stopped vomiting, she gasped and gripped the sides of the toilet, trying to calm her trembling body. Bruce sank down behind her and pulled her into his arms, holding her to his chest and rocking her gently.

"Easy, Darce." he murmured. She could hear Tony mumble something that she couldn't make out, but she heard Bruce's reply.

"It's her body reacting to emotional stress. Just let her calm down."

They sat on the bathroom floor for awhile, Bruce supporting her and Darcy feeling like she could crumble at any moment. Soon she blew out a long sigh. "That sucked."

"That is correct." Bruce chuckled. "Think you're good to stand up?"

"Yep."

He helped her to her feet, and then they walked out of the bathroom back into the office, where Tony was lounging back in his chair with his feet on the desk.

"Hey kid, you okay?" he asked immediately. Darcy nodded her head.

"I think so."

"Good." he said. "Don't go dying on me or anything, alright? I don't want a different lab assistant."

Coming from Tony, that was one hell of a compliment.

**Compliments from me and Tony if you can pick out the two After Earth quotes in this chapter! I just watched the movie over the weekend, and that was an awesome one as well! Not as awesome as Thor 2, but it was a good distraction all the same...**


	13. Chapter 13

**So that my readers are not kept waiting...without further ado, the next chapter!**

Dinner that night was awkward, to say the least.

For one thing, everyone showed up for it. That rarely, rarely happened. One of the things that came from living in a Tower with superheroes with wacked out schedules was that it was really, really rare for everyone to gather at a table at one time for a meal.

But everyone showed up for Chinese takeout that night. Even Pepper stayed for supper, and considering that she'd already stuck around for the afternoon, that was saying something.

For another, it was very quiet. Some people had quiet dinners, but those were basically non existent in the Tower. When you put Thor, Tony, and Clint in a room together, you usually had a solid noise to people ratio. But even Thor seemed reserved when Darcy walked into the room.

It was Steve who finally broke the silence. "You wanna talk about it?"

Darcy immediately shook her head. "Nope."

A glare from Natasha, who had seated herself on one side of Darcy, quickly ended that conversation.

It was Pepper who tried next. "Have you thought of seeing a therapist? I'm guessing there was more to everything than what we saw today."

"Yes there was, and yes I have thought about it." Darcy said. "I'm just not going to a shrink."

Natasha turned her death glare onto Pepper, who just glared back. "Darcy..." Pepper began.

"Don't Darcy me." she muttered. "Look, I'm fine. I'm working on it, okay?"

It was Clint who finally saved the day. "Did anyone else see the look on the jackass' face when he saw what Dum-E did to his car? I think we need a frame for that picture too! Maybe we should start a wall of fame, or something. I think we have a couple photos that could end up on there."

That ended the questions directed towards Darcy, and began the debate of what escapades would be featured on that wall. In the end, they chose a large, currently blank wall on Floor 3 as their official Wall of Fame.

* * *

With all of the 'emotional distress', as Bruce called it, that she had gone through that day, the nightmare shouldn't have surprised her.

It was the same as every other nightmare she'd had. She could feel the hands, see the faces, and smell the alcohol oozing off of her tormentors. She could hear their words as her world began to revolve around a pink bedspread, torn and stained with blood.

She woke up the way she always did, when the nightmares were especially bad. Screaming, lying on the floor, tangled in a mess of blankets, with sweat dripping down her body. Gasping, and trying to reassure herself that the things she had just seen were not happening. She couldn't tell herself that they weren't real, because damn it, she'd lived through them. The only thing she could cling to was that there weren't happening again.

"It's not happening. It was just a dream. It's not happening. It was just a dream." she whimpered, trying to calm herself down. She felt like hyperventilating, and as soon as she thought about it, she felt the panic begin to creep in.

She gave a little shriek when her door flew open and she saw Bruce standing there. He was in a pair of plaid pajama pants, with his hair sticking up in every direction. She could hear someone talking behind him, and thought that it was Tony's voice.

Immediately he was beside her, wrapping her up in his firm arms. She blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

"I swear, Moppy. I don't know what you do, but you always smell so good."

He chuckled softly, and she curled into his chest, treasuring the feeling of being held once again. They sat like that for awhile, and then he kissed her forehead.

"Darcy, baby..." he sighed. "You okay?"

She shook her head. "No." She really wasn't. And she was tired of being not okay. But it wasn't the time to be worrying about that. Right now, right in this moment, she could pretend that she was. She could make herself believe it, even if it was just for tonight.

She wasn't sure when she'd fallen asleep. But she woke up the same way she'd drifted off, wrapped firmly in Bruce's arms.

She was facing the window, and realized that they were still in her room. Except he'd moved her onto the bed, and was sleeping behind her. His arms were wrapped around her waist, and she could feel him behind her.

"You up?" he asked quietly. She let out a sigh and turned around to see him, still in nothing but his pajama pants, gazing at her with concern.

"Holy shit. Why do you ever wear a shirt?" she asked.

Bruce snorted, and brushed a strand of hair off her forehead. "Good morning to you too."

They lay in silence for a moment. Darcy felt like she was supposed to feel awkward about this, or that she was supposed to have some panicky reaction towards it. But instead, it just felt right.

"You okay?" he asked.

She sighed. "Yep. More than okay, actually."

He rolled his eyes. "No brushing it off, Darcy. You scared me last night."

She raised her eyebrows. "You sleep three floors up. How the hell did you hear me?"

"I didn't. JARVIS alerted Tony, and Tony came and got me."

"Ratted out by the J-Man..." she sighed. "I...I used to have a lot of nightmares. They'd been getting better, but I guess that everything with Michael sort of...made me remember some stuff."

"Just nightmares?" he said, sounding slightly skeptical.

"They can be vivid." she admitted.

He wrapped his arm around her waist, and Darcy didn't stiffen this time. She just cuddled in closer. "You stayed with me?"

He nodded. "I wasn't going to leave you, Darce. Not until I knew what was wrong."

She traced her fingertips over his chest. "Thank you." She paused for a moment. "Does this mean we're together? Officially?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. It can. If that's what you want."

"Well, I'm just thinking..." Darcy admitted. "That this is something I could get used to. I mean, you should see the view from my side of the bed. It's pretty impressive."

Bruce snorted. "We don't have to make it official."

"A relationship without the relationshipiness?" Darcy suggested.

"Is that even a word?" Bruce asked. "Yeah. That's what we'll call it."

"Works with me." Darcy murmured, letting her head fall onto his chest.

They stayed locked in each other's arms until the late morning, when they could hear Tony shouting lewd suggestions down the hallway. Darcy rolled her eyes when she heard Clint join in.

"God, will those two ever grow up?" she asked.

Bruce laughed. "Not likely."

* * *

Darcy went to see Pepper that afternoon.

The redheaded CEO was busy as always, but it didn't stop her from hanging up the phone with an "I'll call you back" as soon as Darcy had peeked her head around her office door.

"Darcy!" she said. "What's up, honey?"

Darcy shifted on her feet, feeling slightly uncomfortable. "Could we talk?" she asked.

"Absolutely." said Pepper, not even hesitating. "Give me one second, okay?"

Darcy hadn't meant that by talking, it meant that she needed Pepper's undivided attention. She tried to stop her from letting her secretary know to hold her calls, but Pepper immediately waved Darcy off. "If I don't, we would never get a chance to talk. It's fine, Darce. I thought you might come by today anyways."

Darcy glanced at her skeptically. "Seriously?"

Pepper nodded. "I just had a feeling about it. You want to sit down?"

Darcy did, and then she released one of her wonderful word vomits. "I'm sorry I've screwed everything up and I think that I need therapy."

To her credit, Pepper didn't even look fazed. "What on earth do you have to be sorry for?"

"Well, now you guys have to deal with my ass of an ex, because I know he won't stay away-"

"Darcy-" Pepper chuckled. "You do realize who you live with, right? Your ex could be Bruce Wayne, for all we'd care, and it wouldn't cause a problem." She paused for a moment. "You really don't like to talk about Paul, do you?"

Darcy shook her head. "I just...I wanted to be normal, Pep. And I wish I could just make all that stuff disappear, and just be Darcy, but I think that I'm too messed up for that."

"You know you live in a house with messed up people, right?" Pepper asked.

"I just wanted to be the normal one."

"Honey," Pepper sighed. "Normal is overrated. It sounds so cliché, but it's also so true. Trust me. If Tony was normal, my life would probably be a lot easier and our legal team would probably be a lot smaller, but I wouldn't change him."

"Not even after the La Senza incident?" Darcy snickered. Pepper let out a small groan.

"I'd erase that incident from human memory, but I wouldn't change Tony. Would you change Bruce from his past, and from being the Hulk?"

"Nope." Darcy said, without thinking about it.

"Then why is there any reason that you think you need to change yourself?"

Darcy couldn't answer that question. Pepper smiled and leaned back in her chair. "And...therapy?"

Darcy sighed. "If...I want to go somewhere with Bruce, Pep. And I've tried to make a plan on how to do it, but I just...I don't know how to be normal. Not with Bruce, anyways. The only relationship I ever had was with Paul, and I _know_ that wasn't normal. But I want to be normal with Bruce. I want to be able to go out on dates and cuddle with him, and give him a kiss goodbye when the team has to leave for a mission."

"Did you and Paul have sex?" Pepper asked, seemingly out of the blue, although Darcy tended to believe that there was a method to her madness.

"Yeah." said Darcy. "It sucked."

Pepper's lips twitched slightly. "If you want, I have a friend...She doesn't even call herself a shrink. She calls herself the person you can tell all your shit to with the confidence that it won't be repeated or made fun of. I think you'd like her, Darce."

Darcy blew out a sigh, and brushed back her thick, dark bangs from her face. "Do you think it would help?"

"I can't promise it will, Darcy. But I think...I think it could help you figure out what your normal is supposed to be."

In the end, Pepper promised to book Darcy an appointment, and they'd ended up doing that girl thing where you hug and cry for a couple minutes. When Darcy left Pepper's office, she could honestly say she felt better about things.

Now all she had to do was convince herself to walk into some lady named Claire's office and talk about her problems and how she was trying to have a relationship with Bruce, but that she couldn't help but remember what Paul had done to her and how it was stopping her from moving forward and could she fucking well make it stop?

No sweat, right?


	14. Chapter 14

**Before we go onto the story, I get to give a shout out. Sometimes Fanfiction does not like to publish reader names in my chapters (Don't ask me why!) so if it deletes it, I'm sorry. You know exactly who you are.**

**Laurashrub, thank you so much for helping me out with this story. Guys, you have no idea what a help she's been to me...Not only in making sure that what I'm writing for you guys isn't a complete AU filled with OC's, but also in helping me with characters and plot and how to make sure everyone gets the right impression about the characters. So Laura, thank you so much. I really, really appreciate the help you've been to me. Thanks for keeping me on the right track! (Give her a slow clap, folks.) Hopefully I haven't completely embarrassed you, but you deserve a ton of credit.**

**So now, on to the story!**

Claire was everything that Darcy had not expected.

Pepper had pulled a couple of strings and had managed to get Darcy in for an appointment the day after their conversation. How she did that, Darcy would never know. It also meant that Darcy hadn't had adequate time to talk herself out of going. When Pepper had mentioned that she had an appointment with Claire that day, Darcy had forced herself to go. She had questions, anyways. For one thing, Bruce had slept in his own bed that night. And to Darcy's surprise, she'd missed him. After only one night, she found herself missing his presence. And as little that Darcy knew about a normal relationship, she was pretty sure that sharing a bed before having an official first date was not normal.

Jane had been completely supportive when Darcy had let her know that she'd needed the day off. "Of course, Darcy. It's fine! Tony, Bruce, and I can keep ourselves functioning for a day."

"Since when?" asked Tony, looking up in surprise. Jane glared at him, and he threw his hands up in surrender. "Fine. We won't die if you take a day."

"Thanks." Darcy said, breathing a sigh of relief. She caught a curious glance from Bruce, who was working on some gamma thing that Darcy didn't really understand, and was thankful that he didn't ask why she needed a day. She knew that he'd be happy that she was getting help, but if it didn't work out, she didn't want to disappoint him either.

* * *

She'd taken a cab to Claire's office. By the time she'd arrived, Darcy's overactive imagination had given her multiple different impressions of what Claire would be like.

None of them were accurate. Darcy was blown away as soon as she opened the door. Claire was a sweet woman in her mid fifties, with completely grey hair that was cut to her chin. She was the sort of woman who seemed to have aged shamelessly, making no effort to hide her grey hair or the lines that time had left on her face. She wore a white t-shirt and a long teal skirt that hung loosely over her small frame. She had a big, clunky necklace on, and a stunning smile that immediately drew Darcy in.

"You're Darcy, right?" she asked. Darcy nodded, and Claire shook her hand warmly.

"I'm Claire. Come on in, dear. I spoke to Virginia yesterday, and she said that you'd be coming for a chat."

Darcy was pretty sure that Claire was one of the last people in the world who knew Pepper as Virginia. Darcy allowed Claire to lead her into what was basically a living room. The warm lighting and soft tan walls created a relaxing, homey atmosphere, and Darcy began to realize why Pepper had thought Claire would be a good person for her to talk to.

"Do you drink tea?" Claire asked.

"I do." said Darcy, briefly remembering the cups that Bruce would bring her when her anxiety was getting a hold on her.

"Good." said Claire. "I can think of few things that make me feel better than a warm cup of tea. I can never understand why some people don't enjoy it."

Soon, Claire had served them both a cup of tea, and then sat down in the chair across from Darcy. She studied her for a moment, and then smiled. "I'm afraid Virginia wouldn't tell me much about you, dear, only that you weren't sure about talking to anyone who could be classified as a 'shrink'."

"She was pretty insistent that I should." Darcy admitted.

"That's good." said Claire. "If there is one thing I know of Virginia, it's that she always has a reason for the things she does. She's a smart girl, that one is. If she was insistent, I'm sure there was a reason for it."

"I know there is." Darcy replied. "I just...I don't really like to talk about it."

"Then let's not." Claire suggested. "Forcing yourself to talk about whatever the reason is won't fix the fact that there's a reason you don't want to talk about it, Darcy. I've explained that to Anthony many times, and while there were times when I didn't think it would ever get through that thick skull of his, he eventually recognized the reasons why he didn't want to talk."

"You've given Tony therapy?" Darcy said in surprise. Claire laughed.

"Call it what you will, yes. I've spoken to Anthony on a number of occasions. Whether or not he spoke to me was another matter entirely."

Darcy finally leaned back on the couch. "So...what you talk about, then...It's not just the shitty past stuff?"

Claire looked like she wanted to give Darcy a lecture on swearing, but let it pass. "Of course not, Darcy. Because there's more to our lives than that, isn't there?" she paused for a moment. "Why don't you start about telling me how exactly you came to know Virginia and Anthony?"

That's how it started. Darcy began to tell Claire about how she'd come to Stark Towers with Jane, and had almost immediately been offered a job by Tony. Then they'd swapped a couple of Tony stories, because you couldn't have a conversation that involved Tony Stark without including some of his escapades.

Then the conversation had turned to Bruce's arrival at the Tower, and what it had meant for Darcy. And what it meant now. Then Darcy asked:

"Is there a book or something, that tells you how to have a normal relationship?"

Claire cocked her head to one side. "Define normal for me."

Darcy explained how she had watched Jane and Thor's relationship grow, and how she couldn't help but find herself wishing that she knew how she and Bruce could be that way. Claire had chuckled.

"No relationship is normal, Darcy. That's what makes each one so different, and extraordinary at the same time. Even though you think your friends have fallen in love in a normal way, I'm sure that there are some abnormal things that happened along the way. It will be the same for every romance you ever watch, or read about, or see play out in front of you. You and Bruce, whatever your relationship is, will never be normal. If that's what you want, you will always be disappointed by it."

Darcy brushed her bangs away and sighed. "It's just...the past shit-stuff. The past stuff? I keep waiting for it to come back and screw me over. I guess I was just hoping that my past wasn't who I am, you know?"

"Oh, but it's not." said Claire.

"Pardon?" asked Darcy, confused.

"Darcy, I don't know your past. And I'm not going to ask you about it today. But what happens to you does not make you who you are." Claire thought for a moment. "Do you have any scars? Physical ones, I mean? Maybe a cut that didn't heal the way it should have?"

Darcy held up her forearm, where Paul had once smashed a beer bottle. She'd needed quite a few stitches to fix that one. "Yeah, I have a couple."

"When people look at you, is that the first thing they see?"

"Not really." Darcy said, smirking slightly at the thought of all the obligatory chest stares she'd received in her lifetime. "At least, I don't think so."

Claire nodded. "I agree. It's not what I noticed when I saw you. Because your scars aren't what make you who you are, Darcy. They remind us of the things we've seen, yes. And they're proof of places where wounds have healed. But Darcy Lewis isn't just scars, anymore than Claire Swan or Virginia Potts or Anthony Stark is. You are who you are because of the way you see your own scars. If you look in the mirror, and can't stand the sight of those scars, then a day will come when you won't be able to look at those scars without feeling repulsed by them. But if you can look at them and see the miracle of the place where healing is occurred, that will define you. Your past isn't what makes you who you are, Darcy. It's how you hold up that past to yourself."

Towards the end of their conversation, Claire asked about Bruce. "What are his reservations about the two of you being together?"

Darcy thought for a moment. "I-I don't know. I mean, he has a couple of his own...issues? But I think we dealt with those."

Claire nodded thoughtfully. "You know, if you still have reservations, he probably does too." She shifted in her chair. "Am I allowed to give you homework?"

Darcy shrugged. "Sure."

"Okay." said Claire. "Your homework this week is to talk to Bruce about _his _reservations. Be open to them, and just listen to what he has to say. Write them down, if you have to. Next week we'll talk about them, alright?"

Darcy nodded, and then stretched out. She looked up at the clock and realized she'd been talking to Claire for just over two hours. "Yikes!" she said.

Claire laughed. "I'm afraid that'll have to do it for us, Darcy. I promised my granddaughter that I'd be at her play this afternoon. But would this same time next week work for you?"

They'd agreed that it would, and then Darcy had gone on her way. She was amazed by how relaxed she was walking out of Claire's office. Their "session" had definitely not been what she'd expected.

She promised herself that she would get Bruce to their café at some point this week. But for now, she was fine to just let her mind relax and ignore the weight that had been riding her for so long.

* * *

When she'd made it back to the Tower, the first thing Darcy did was thank Pepper for sending her to Claire.

"She is so not a psychologist." said Darcy.

"Well, she does have her degrees." said Pepper. "But she definitely isn't conventional. It went well?"

"Yeah." said Darcy. "Has Tony seen her?"

"I wondered if she'd mention that." Pepper laughed. "She's the only person Tony didn't scare off in the first week of sessions. They have an understanding now, I think."

"Thanks." said Darcy. "For setting that up, I mean. It was good."

"I'm glad." said Pepper. And she really did seem glad. "Darcy, we're all here for you on this. Did you talk about Michael?"

Darcy shook her head. "Actually, no. We focused on the present stuff, actually."

"DARRRCCCYYYYYYYYYY!"

Clint came running into the room, an expression of terror on his face. He grabbed Darcy's arms and placed her in front of him, as some sort of a human shield.

"Uh, hi Clint?" she said.

Natasha stalked into the room, her eyes darting around the room and narrowing when she saw Clint. "Wimp."

"Save me." Clint whispered.

"What did you do?" she whispered back.

"Don't you dare use her to try and get out of this." Natasha said. "Face the music, Barton."

"I don't really like this song, so I think I'll pass!" Clint called, shuffling Darcy around so that there was a counter between them and Natasha. "And I sort of pissed her off."

"How?" Darcy asked.

"I may or may not have plastered My Little Pony stickers onto her gun collection?" Clint said. Natasha glared at him.

"And you may or may not die from your own stupidity."

"Clint..." Darcy moaned, shaking her head. "In what universe did you think that was a good idea?"

"Too far?" he asked.

"Stealing her underwear is one thing, but the gun collection?"

"I love you, Tasha." Clint called.

The Russian still looked as angry and deadly as ever, but Darcy was pretty sure she could catch a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. "Flattery will get you nowhere."

"Would tickets to the sold out Broadway performance of _Les Mes_ get me somewhere?" Clint asked hopefully.

Natasha stared at him for a moment. "There's no way you got them." she said.

"There's always a way, Tasha." Clint said with a wink. He dug into the pocket of his jeans and slid the tickets across the counter. "For you."

Natasha continued to stare at him, and then finally shook her head and walked away. Clint blew out a long sigh of relief and then grinned at Darcy.

"Taking your life into your own hands, Hawk-ass?" she teased.

"Always!" Clint said. "And I live to see another day." He nodded to the TV. "Wanna play Mario Kart?"

"Yep." said Darcy. After rounding up an impressive pile of junk food in record time, they pulled out the Wii remotes and were just about to start when Thor walked into the room.

"Hey buddy, you wanna make it a threesome?" Clint called to him. Darcy snorted, and Clint glanced over at her.

"What?"

She just started to laugh, waiting for him to catch on. Clint's eyebrows furrowed together for a moment, before he fell back with his own snort of laughter. "Jeez, get your mind out of the gutter, Darce. That's not what I meant, and you know it!"

"I'm not sure what you find so amusing," said Thor, staring at them as if they'd lost their minds. "But I will join you in the battle of the Karts of Mario."

"Pep, you in?" Darcy called. Pepper looked up from her laptop in surprise.

"Um..."

"She's in." said Clint, pulling out a fourth controller.

* * *

"Damn, Fury was long winded today. Did anyone else find him long winded?" Tony asked, leaning his head against the cool metal of the elevator wall. He, Jane, and Bruce had just made it home after a painfully long consultation session with Fury over some of the experiments they were running.

Bruce shrugged. "It was a bit long." he admitted.

"But at least we have approval to continue the experimentation with the Tesseract." Jane said. "Even if it took awhile for Fury to give it to us."

"The man's too uptight." Tony said.

"He's got a tough job." Bruce reminded him.

"Yeah, but can't he give it a rest? Separate home and work life, maybe? Damn, we need to get him laid."

Bruce stared at him. "Is sex your answer to everything?"

"Is there another answer to everything?"

"Jarvis, where's everyone at right now?" Jane asked, ignoring the awkward exchange the best she could.

"Miss Romanoff is currently scraping some form of sticker off of her gun collection, with some assistance from Captain Rogers. I would not suggest interrupting them. You will find Thor, Miss Lewis, Miss Potts, and Agent Barton in the game room."

"Thanks Jarvis." Tony called. "Wait, what the hell is Pep doing in the game room?"

"I believe she is "Gaming", sir." Jarvis said dryly.

Tony glanced at Bruce, who just shrugged. They rode the elevator up, and found Clint, Darcy, Pepper, and Thor locked in a battle of epic proportions.

"DAMN IT!" Pepper yelled. Clint laughed and hi-fived Thor.

Pepper and Darcy were on the couch in front of the TV, with a massive bowl of popcorn between the two of them. Clint was perched on the arm of the couch, balancing a bowl of M+M's on his knee. Thor had taken the floor, and had about 8 different bowls of assorted snacks surrounding him. Pepper swore again as she tried to steer her kart away from a wall.

"Um, hey?" said Tony, for once looking completely shocked at the scene in front of him.

"Slightly busy!" called Darcy. "Damn it, Clint! Stop blowing me up!"

"I believe I just passed the lady Pepper for the fourth time of the game." Thor observed.

"Pepper..." Tony said cautiously. "Are you...gaming?"

"Maybe." she said, as she tried to steer her kart away from yet another wall. She swore when she fell off a nearby cliff.

Jane came and watched the game for a moment. "Who's Princess Peach?"

"That would be Thor." Clint said, snickering. "But he's kicking all our asses at this, so we can't really make fun on him."

"MOTHERFUCKING STUPID SHI-" Pepper yelled, as everyone else crossed the finish line. She looked like she was ready to throw the control at something, which was when Tony decided to intervene.

"Okay, uh...Pep? Maybe take a break from the Wii? Before you break anything else?"

Eventually, with the promise of wine and a bubble bath, Tony was able to lure her away from the Wii. And if Clint had just kept his mouth shut about her driving abilities, then he wouldn't have had a stiletto imprinted on the back of his head.

Thus was the price of victory.


End file.
